Aurora's Space

When I was younger, we lived in Alberta.  I’m sure we had county fairs, or exhibitions, or whatever they would have been called, but we never went.  Maybe it was too far away, maybe it cost too much, maybe it wasn’t publicized enough and we never knew about it.  May we just weren’t interested.

It wasn’t until we moved here to Nova Scotia that I went to my first county fair (or, in my case, ‘exhibition’).  We’d just missed the 2001 festivities, but attended from 2002 on and starting in 2003 I’ve participated each year by entering items into their cross stitch and photography competitions.  This was the first year that I wasn’t able to attend the whole week, but I did catch the last few days.

These types of fairs seem to be most popular in North America, but even Europe has their own versions of town and village fairs.  Every fair is different, even just here in Nova Scotia.  My local fair lasts about a week and has just about everything you can imagine.  Art, cooking and livestock competitions; rides; show jumping; rodeos; horse and ox pulls; entertainment and displays; barrel and pole racing; food and a beer garden; ATV races and much, much more.  There’s something for pretty much everyone, young and old, even with regards to food.

No matter what your particular fair has to offer, I highly recommend checking it out at least once.  Maybe you’ll like it and go back ever year, maybe you find that it just really isn’t for you.  Either way, it will be a great day (or more) out and about, supporting local businesses and events.  You’ll find out a little bit more about your area and the people that call it home…

…and that’s never a waste of time!

The Deets:

Cost:  Depends :)

Hours:  Depends

Location:  Depends

Website:  n/a

This all depends on your local fair.  Google or ask around for more information!

This post is one in a series examining interesting locations in Canada and around the world.

In no particular order…

/1. Summer bugs and heat and sticky ickiness.
/2. People who shout to the back of the bus instead of sitting with whoever they want to talk to.
/3. Being wrong
/4. Facebook
/5. Money – the lack of it or the fact that everything costs so much of it!
/6. Diamonds – so over-rated… at least the normal ones.
/7. Politics.
/8. War, crime, poverty and all that global stuff.
/9. Entertainment industry.
/10. Sleep!

Come back next month for a happier list!

I’ve been on Twitter for a year and a half now.  Though there are countless reasons why I’m happy I joined the social networking site (obviously, or this little series wouldn’t exist!) there was one night in February that, unexpectedly, ended up being one of the most fun times I’ve spent on the site.

I hadn’t really been that interested in watching the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, held in Vancouver, but I did have the TV on in the background and planned to do some work on the computer while it played.  That was the plan, anyway.

It didn’t work out that way.  Before the ceremonies even started Twitter was, well, all a-twitter with talk abut the ceremonies.  It only grew as the night went and I got totally into it.  It was like watching it in a sports bar only better, because who talks to strangers in a bar?  Well, I don’t at any rate.  We were oohing and aahing, mocking and laughing, live-blogging and chatting about everything that happened during those opening ceremonies.  This continued to certain degree throughout the Olympics.  We gathered to cheer on ‘our’ athletes, celebrate wins and complain about the coverage.

I usually enjoy the Olympics every year, but whether it was because they were being held in my ‘own backyard’ or if it was just in the mood this year, I enjoyed these games more than any others.

Honestly, though, I think it was because of the fun we had on Twitter.

The Deets:

Twitter: n/a

Web: n/a

Follow me on Twitter: @AuroraLee

This is one in a series of posts about great finds discovered on or because of Twitter.

One day last month we decided to go on a day trip.  Being a fairly hot weekend, I said we should only go if we go somewhere along the coast.  There’s no way we would enjoy ourselves in the heat if we spent the day outside inland and there was really no point going if we were just going to spend the day driving around in an air conditioned car.  That narrowed it down a bit, but there is a LOT of coat here in Nova Scotia!  A family friend had mentioned going to a place called ‘The Ovens’ a few times so we decided to check that out.

The Ovens Natural Park is a privately owned camp ground right on the Atlantic coast.  It has all the regular amenities: picnic grounds, sites for tents and campers; there are cabins and a swimming pool a beach – even if it is a bit rocky – a small resturant and a little store…

and caves!

The caves are, of course, the main draw to the location.  There’s a wonderful path that goes along the edge of the cliffs and down into the caves.  Little “look-offs” have been created both inside some of the caves so you can go in and look around, as well as outside along the path for a different view of the coastline.  There is also a boat tour you can go on to visit the caves by sea instead of by land.  If we go again, I’d love to do that and perhaps spend a night and explore the camping area!  Visiting again at low tide is definitely a must, as well!

If caves aren’t your thing, the park offers many other activities.  You can watch the sailboats in the Lunenburg Harbour, visit the small gold mining museum and try your had at panning for gold on the beach, swim in the pool, or enjoy a cold drink at the restaurant.  There’s even a petting zoo!  I also found many other things to photograph aside from the caves.  There’s live music at the diner almost every night.

One cave was extended during the area’s gold mining days.  Mother nature (or, of course, whoever designed the flow of the park!) saved the best for last with Cannon Cave.  The water rushing in and out of the cave really does sound like a cannon going off.  It’s really quite spectacular.  The beautiful colours of the slate and water are a sight to see as well.

I highly recommend The Ovens as an afternoon, at the very least, detour, especially if you are a fan of the force and beauty of Mother Nature and the sea.

The Deets:

Cost:  $8/adult for entrance to the park.  There are other/different fees for boat tours and camping etc.

Hours:  Camp ground so n/a… though it would difficult to go into the caves in the dark!

Location:  15 Minutes from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; half an hour from Bridgewater

View Larger Map
Website:  Ovens Park

This post is one in a series examining interesting locations in Canada and around the world.

“My bags are packed & I’m ready to go…”

Well, actually, not quite on either count.  I’m not where ready to go.  The suitcase is getting there, I’ve been filing it up with all the Star Wars and Orlando specific things that I’m not going to need between now and when I leave for my trip.  Next week at this time I’ll be in sunny (and no doubt way too hot) Orlando, Florida, gearing up for Star Wars Celebration V which starts August 12th.  Future week-from-now me is likely sitting on a bar stool at the Hard Rock Cafe or will be soon.

I still need to finish packing and make sure I’ve got all the camera equipment together that I want to take with me, not to mention finalize my schedule.  I’ve got all my Star Wars shirts packed already and I’ll be picking up a few more at the Convention; my brand new shorts – I don’t really wear shorts a lot around here – and my newly purchased sunscreen and bug repellent.  I’ll probably bring my laptop, if only to transfer photos on to, though I have no idea when I’ll have time to do that.

I’ll arrive in Orlando Wednesday afternoon after spending the night at the airport.  Right away, I plan on heading down to the “CityWalk” to look around and visit the Hard Rock Cafe.  I’m hoping that I find something else interesting in the area, even if it’s only photography.  Otherwise, I’ll have some time to relax!

I’ve got more parties lined up for the four days than I’ve been to in my whole life!  Well, that’s an exaggeration… but not by much!  I’ll probably end up sleeping in the convention centre parking lot to hopefully get a spot in the George Lucas panel.  I have no idea how that schedule is going to work, considering I’m rooming with three other people…  (Edit after this went live: No parking lot sleeping required.  I’ll be volunteering during the panel Saturday morning, and one of our room mates canceled :( )

Sunday evening, I’ll get to relax a bit, as I don’t have anything planned just yet.  No doubt something will come up.  I will need that night to sort myself out and pack though… I’ll be checking out early Monday morning and taking a bus tour to the Kennedy Space Centre and the everglades.  I don’t fly out until the next morning - Tuesday.

It’s going to be a fun, action-packed (and sleep deprived!) week, but I’m SO looking forward to it!  I can’t wait to see all the friends I’ve made on the forums and met in Dallas, not to mention the excitement and fun of the events themselves!

Are you going?  What are you most looking forward to doing?

I was a fairly active member of a Star Wars fan community when I first heard about Fan Days III, to be held in Dallas Texas.  I thought about it for quite a while, going back and forth between “ZOMG I have to go and money is no object!!” to “Pfft, I don’t need to go all the way to Dallas, a place I’ve never wanted to go, for a convention; I’m SO not going”.  Even though I’d just returned from two and a half weeks in England for a Moonlight Convention, I finally I decided to take the plunge, thanks to a seat sale, and booked the trip including a couple of extra days to explore the city.  Check out my blog post on the convention here.

It wasn’t until after booking the flight that I went to research what to do on my two days in the city… and couldn’t really find anything that interested me.  Not even day trips or walking tours of the city.  That’s not to say there weren’t any, but in all my research – and even exploring the city and airport when I got there – I never came across anything.  Of course there were museums and galleries – all the things a city ‘should’ have – but none of them particularly interested me.  Having just come back from England, a trip that seemed to cement my current interest in architectural photography, I decided to see what the architecture of Dallas was like.  Was there anything interesting to photograph?  Was I doomed to simply hang out in the hotel room for my free time?  Productive, yes, but such a waste of time and money in a new-to-me city.  Luckily, in my research, I came across this site dedicated to Dallas Architecture.  SCORE! Next, I used a great, location-based Flickr search engine called Earth Album, I also came across a few other buildings and sites that I wanted to check out.  Using the information gathered from those websites, along with an extremely detailed exploration of the area in Dallas using Google Streetview, I mapped out a two days of touring around the area.  A full day to explore and photograph Downtown Dallas and half a day, before leaving for the airport, to explore Deep Ellum.

I really wish that I had more time and hadn’t had to rush my pictures… and that it wasn’t raining all day.  I also wish I’d been travelling with someone so I’d have a partner to stay out late at night with and photograph the lights, especially in the West End and Deep Ellum districts.  I also really I’d been able to get access to some of these places – especially the run down and abandoned buildings – and photograph inside.  So many wishes!  Despite the conditions, I think I was able to get some really great photos!

Learn more about some of the buildings, and my trip, by visiting that architecture website, as well as my photos on Flickr.

It wasn’t until I was looking through the list of buildings on the Dallas Architecture site that I came across the Texas School Book Depository and it finally clicked that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.  Of course I knew that but it simply just never occurred to me when I was looking for things to do in the city until I saw that entry.  Of course that was first on my list of ‘extras’ to add to my little tour.  (not so little, actually!) While exploring the downtown area, I made sure to stop at the JFK memorial and went through the Sixth Floor Museum.  The sixth floor is where the main exhibits – focusing on Kennedy’s trip to Dallas, the assassination and ‘conspiracy’; the top floor had an excellent museum and gallery focusing on the photo journalists who brought the most popular images of the ordeal to the world.  Thanksgiving Square, and its small, beautiful chapel, was the only other stop I made during these days.

Dallas is definitely not a place I would recommend as a tourist destination.  Nevertheless, if you’re passing through, or are already in the city for some other purpose, an extra half a day at least is recommended to take in a few of the sites.

I’ve seen several posts around the net with people showing what they carry around every day and finally thought about doing my own… so here are the very interesting contents of my bag:

In my leather messenger bag type bag:

water bottle

ball cap (in the summer so I’m not sick by the time I get to the bus)

day planner

wallet (only if I know I’m going to need it – to save on impulse buys!)

cloth bag, just in case it’s needed

glasses

notebook for writing blog posts and whatnot

pens, of course

camera

collection of small notebooks for recording ideas

earbuds for the…

iPhone or…

mp3 player (not pictured)

memory stick… just in case.

I often carry a full backpack when I go to work and then I also bring along a reading book, brush and my lunch bag :)

A bonus post this week, though this post is almost a year late!  Er… better late then never?

A post on my free time in Dallas will be posted July 28th.

I landed in Dallas on October 23rd and that night we attended Star Wars in Concert at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.  I met a bunch of my ForceCast friends in the lobby of the hotel and we boarded the party bus to the venue.  The riders on the bus seemed to be made up of mostly ForceCast fans and personalities, as well as admins from Rebelscum and TheForce.net as well as Steven Sansweet from Lucasfilm.  The concert was, in a word, awesome!  I think it’s a must see for any Star Wars fan, or fan of the symphony, or even just those who enjoy a good show.  I’ve included a few photos from the show below.

The next morning, I got a ride with Obi-Wan Kenobi to the convention center.  It was an early morning, because first up on the agenda was the Fan Breakfast.  It was great to have a nice, relaxing meal with friends before the craziness of the convention started.  We had a great breakfast buffet and, to practice the ‘when in Rome’ philosophy, I even put Tabasco sauce on my scrambled eggs!  Aside from the good food and good friends, another great part of the ‘event’ was all the free swag!  We each got a t-shirt and gift bag of ‘stuff’ and there was also a raffle with great prizes, though I didn’t win any of those.  I also had some extra swag such as an autograph card set, poster and more because of the VIP ticket I had for the convention.  It was hosted by Steven Sansweet and Dave Filoni and James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Clone Wars – but NOT the same Kenobi I got a ride with!) were there as well and James was signing autographs.

I attended a couple of panels that first day – one with Don Bies about his work with the droids, hosted by Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank from the ForceCast; and Steven Sansweet and Dave Filoni talking what’s coming up in the Star Wars ‘verse.  The last hour I did a shift volunteering at the Rebel Legion table.  I spent the rest of the day getting all the autographs I wanted… which considering I’m not an autograph collector was a lot!  Dave Filoni, Anthony Daniels, Matt Wood, Dave Accord and the cast of The Clone Wars on my Clone Wars poster, David Prowse and Ray Park in my new Star Wars in Concert program, Steven Sansweet on the box cover for The Vault and Don Bies on my Con badge.

Sunday was much the same.  Two panels – Sansweet and Anne Neumann talking about their collectibles book and a great Clone Wars panel with Dave Filoni, Clone Wars preview and a table read with the voice actors.  Dave had only written the scene on the flight to Dallas; great presentation!  Instead of autographs and volunteering I spent the day looking through the vendors, collecting sketch cards from the artists and hanging out at the ForceCast table.  Came away with a wonderful set of art books from Ralph McQuarrie, great sketch cards and other artwork and more!

It was a blast and from hanging out with friends at the Con to chilling with them after hours over food and drinks – the best part of the weekend! – I can’t wait to do it again!

… or “Why Would You do THAT??”

As I mentioned earlier, I will officially be going to Orlando, Florida in August to attend Star Wars Celebration V.

Fan Breakfast at Star Wars Fan Days III

Celebration is… well, a celebration of Star Wars.  It’s an official convention dedicated to all things Wars.  And by ‘all things’, I really mean it – from the main stream to the obscure.  One (of the many) things that makes it special is that it doesn’t happen every year.  CIV (Celebration 4) took place May 2007 in Los Angeles with a focus on celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the original Star Wars: A New Hope and introducing the new Clone Wars cartoon that would be released 2008.  This go around, it’s a celebration of the 30^th Anniversary of the Empire Strikes Back.  I’m really looking forward to the week, though I’d hoped to take a bit longer vacation and visit a friend on the way.  Gotta love with lack of money and ability to drink rear their ugly heads!

Something that was mentioned on a recent episode of The Forcecast, and discussed a bit on the Rebel Scum Forums, got me thinking about why I wanted to go to Celebration; what I hope to get out of it.  Really, it’s about why I go to fan conventions at all.

My first convention was MoonlightCon in Los Angeles in 2008, followed by the Moonlight Gala in Chicago later that year (I seem to have neglected to write that trip up… my bad!) and Breakout Before Moonlight in London, England last June.  (Sensing a theme?)  Unfortunately, that will probably be my last Moonlight event.  Money is just too tight.  My first (and only, to date) Star Wars even was Star Wars Fan Days III in Dallas last October (working on that trip soon!); then, of course, will come Star Wars Celebration V in August and a small sci-fi convention in Halifax in October that will include some Star Wars guests.  After that, I’ll be pulling back from cons, at least for a while, to build my bank account up again and/or concentrate on ‘regular’ travelling.  I’m sure it won’t be forever, though!

So… why?  Why 6 fan conventions in three years?

Well, the first is travel.  I love to travel above almost all else.  (It’s my bank account that doesn’t).  Chicago would be the exception, as I didn’t see any of the city.  England is like a second or third home to me; I always love going back!  I’ll be honest – Los Angeles, Dallas and Orlando were never on my ‘to-do list’, but they were still new to me and I love to visit new places!  Los Angeles was awesome and I’d love to go back one day.  In fact, I had contemplated, for a while, revisiting the city briefly this spring.  I found an ‘angle’ for my free time in Dallas that piqued my interest – an architectural tour of a few areas of the city.  I quite enjoyed it and though it’s not on my list of places to revisit, if I ever did find myself back there, I left plenty of things to do!  In Orlando, I’ve left myself a day or two to explore and though I haven’t done a lot of research yet, I’m sure I’ll find something I’ll enjoy… that doesn’t involve a theme park or mouse.

I’d heard of conventions before the advent of the Interwebz, of course, but never dreamed of ever even wanting to attend one.  Thanks to the communities I’ve become a part of through various fan boards, this is what I look forward to the most – hanging out and having fun with friends, but mostly with fans.  Maybe if I lived somewhere else, this wouldn’t be such an important part for me.  I never get to just hang out and talk Star Wars or Moonlight with people around here.  A perfect episode or movie is made even better when you can watch it with other die-hards.  Sure I can read about a panel or event online, but it’s not nearly as fun as being there with your fellow fans.  I’m a bit worried about Orlando, though.  With the sheer number of people and how spread out we are (or I am, at least – money again; I had to get a hotel a bit further away to save money) I’m worried that I won’t even be able to find everyone, let alone spend a lot of time hanging out.

If I were to say meeting the stars and attending panels had nothing to do with it, that would be a big, big lie.  That’s not always why I travel to these things – there were no Moonlight stars at the LA Con and had I gone to Vegas this past Memorial Day weekend, there would have been none there, as well.  It’s definitely a bonus, of course, especially the ones who seem to be having just as much fun as the fans are.  Skipping the stars and the panels entirely, however, would be a huge waste so I’ll be sure to take some in, but plan to make sure the first two points are properly covered!  I hope to volunteer in Orlando, which will mean more time with the stars and more…

…Free swag.  Star Wars cons, at least, seem famous for the free swag.  I like free stuff!  Especially free Star Wars stuff.

I can’t want to see what Orlando has in store!

from gak on Flickr

I joined Twitter quite a while after first hearing about it.  The delay wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to use it, I just didn’t know where to start.  At least on Facebook, you can start by making a profile, playing some games… you know… Facebook stuff.  But Twitter… well, I didn’t know anyone that was on the site, I didn’t have a ‘plan’.  I just wanted to play… at more than just talking to myself.

Well, then I found out that many of my Star Wars friends were on the site, so that’s where I started.  I never dreamed that any one I actually knew in real life would be on there as well.  Turned out that a few people at work actually were, I followed a few of their followers and a few of their followers and following.  Soon I hand an interesting smattering of ‘local’ (within Nova Scotia, mostly in Halifax) Twitter users and I was getting all sorts of useful information about events, people, places and more in the area.  I’ve decided that this is probably one of, if not the, most valuable aspects of Twitter, at least for me.  Information on photography, writing, design, tech, news… I can simply subscribe to blogs and sites for that.  Most of this local information is, for the most part, only found on Twitter.  In an effort to learn about and connect with, more locals I’ve slowly building up a large list of Nova Scotians (with another list of people that I know about but haven’t gotten around to adding on Twitter yet).  I’d estimate there are at least 750 – more, no doubt – Nova Scotians on Twitter.  Of course there’s a core group of users, but I still find out the most interesting things from the most interesting people.

Meetups, events, podcamps, bookcamps, the best places to eat, the best microbrewery to visit…

Do you want to know more about your area?  Even if you’re not on Twitter, use the search function for people and updates in your area, you’ll find a wealth of information!

The Deets:

Twitter: List 1, List 2 and find more!

Web: Halifax Tweetup Calendar

Follow me on Twitter: @AuroraLee

This is one in a series of posts about great finds discovered on or because of Twitter.