The Tale of Smoky Mountain Geek Expo 2025

 Hello Friends,

Enter A World of Geeky Delights

So this past Saturday I attended my local convention the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo. It was making its triumphant come back after Tropical Storm Helene got it canceled last year. I was so happy to be back.

History:

This convention started in 2022. It was put together in part by Lee White who owns Geek Mountain in Canton, NC, go check it out it be small but it's awesome, and Lee is such an amazing and welcoming guy. I found out about it by seeing flyers for it at the 2022 Spring WNC Comic Con. I was ecstatic to have a local con, not local in a regional sense, literally local.

Characters:

 

Me: I was Dean Winchester from Supernatural. I will do a little write up about my journey to this cosplay... At some point maybe. But yeah I was armed with salt packets and my dagger, fake of course.

My Friends: Captain was Sylvie from Loki and Fangirl, who opted out of cosplay ,cause not only was this her first convention this year, she'd just had surgery a few weeks before, so she wasn't up for cosplay, so she donned her Scoobynatural shirt and a crocheted wrap she'd made for Halloween. 

 The Road to the Con:

So my friends showed up that morning. As I walk out Captain, our driver, rolls her window down and says"Hey sexy thing, going my way" or something to that effect. I don't if it was cause I was Dean or just to goof with me. I was probably blushing a bit. I go to get in the back seat and Captain warned me she hadn't got it vacuumed from where her dog Brianna had been riding in the back. I looked and there was a lot of dog hair.. I didn't want Dean walking up to the con covered in it so I went back in the house, grabbed two large towels and fashioned me a seat cover. Then we started down my piece of crap road. I'm not kidding when I say my family has cursed this road for a century since my great great Paternal Papaw use to use it to get to his home further up on the mountain. Well as we're being jostled  I was about to say the line Captain's Brother told her and a friend that we love to say at times like this "Hold on to your uterus's girls", I was fixing to say it when it hit me... neither of my friends have uterus's anymore. I told them that and we had a good laugh.

Jack, Captain's Car Skeleton, is the death of the party.

I actually ended up laughing at one point cause I saw Captain's radio display and it was the song Don't Fear the Reaper, which had been used in Supernatural. Well the day was gorgeous, and just a lot of signs it was going to be a good day:

When we get there we were shocked at the line. Now I don't know if this is normal cause we got there an hour later or cause, and this is my hope, that it's getting more popular. 

So after a few minute wait, we got inside in a timely manner, and got stamped. We were officially at the Expo. Sadly the air conditioning was on the fritz this year so we were toasty I was just grateful I was in my 11th Doctor costume.

 

The Con:

 After signing the posters they get guests to sign. My friends got stopped by the 501st Legion who asked Captain what planet was she from. She informed him she wasn't good at improve and said Asgard. 

 

 

The Expo had some new merch and this year they had pins! I was so excited. See I always get pins at cons and occasionally ren faires I attend. I blame my biker Uncle. I saw his riding vest that had all these pins on the back from all the biker rallies he'd been to, and I wanted to start something like that for my events. So I started getting pins at all my cons. Now I've gotten pins before at this con, but what made it special,is that this pin is specifically for this con. I've rarely had where cons actually sell pins for their events, and those that did I couldn't afford them, but yays this one I could. I told the woman at the booth all this and she said she'd tell the guy over it they were a good idea. 

  

 

Merchandise: 

I drooled over so many things this year. This year a table had so many Wonder Woman things. Some vintage. It wasn't the only one either. I got some great pieces for the collection, which we'll cover in the haul section.

 

 

There was a lot of Godzilla this year. It made me so happy. There was a woman helping her son run a booth whose shirt proclaimed she was a Godzilla Mom. I told her of our VHS Godzilla collection as a kid.

 

The booth's owner said he was the best intern

Moisturize Me!

 

There were some surprises at the booths this year like these Lady Cassandra from Doctor Who...pot holders?  I wanna say these were by Twisted Sisters... If it  isn't and you know who it is let me know. I saw the most beautiful glass work by Stoplight Stained Glass. I'm telling you if I'd won the lottery or that inheritance from a kind unknown rich relative had come in, I would have purchased his Leonardo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stained glass piece. 

 

 

Of course the year's trend  Labubu made a minor appearance. I saw little Lego Labubus amongst the sea of Lego figures. There was even 3d printed Labubu faces at one of the booths

 

Loved seeing my Morgan's Comics peeps. Hope to start visiting them regularly before long. If your in the West Asheville area look them up their awesome folks with great merch.

 

Costumes: 

 

  

 

 

I saw a Beetlejuice cartoon item at  a booth. Person beside me was like they'd have to get this cause of their tattoos. As I was taking this of them I was thinking this Hazbin Hotel Alastair costume looked familiar. I quickly realized why. They informed me they'd been the one I'd done the Dean vs Alastair photo with at the Spring WNC Comic Con in May. Turns out we live in the same town! I also saw a TV Demon from the show there... I hope they played nice...

 

 

Of course there had to be someone dressed as characters from K-Pop Demon Hunters. I mean even if you haven't seen it, you've heard the songs, their music is so popular it's made it to Jaques the Whipper's banned song request list.

 

The purple haired one, I'm not able to watch the show no clue who she is, and I talked about the mashup fan art people have been doing of K-Pop Demon Hunters and Supernatural. *Ah man! I should have done a fun mash up with them as Dean! ><*

The Dude of The Big Lebowski graced us with his laid back presence. Dudeists rejoice! Not kidding it's a thing.

 

Our con extended to a second building this year that housed gaming tables, VR gaming, and the Cosplay Contest. I encountered beautifully made costumes, I'm not sure who he was but it looked great.

End of the Con:

As we were taking our leave we ran into my holler adjacent neighbor, who I mentioned in my Helene post.
It was his first time there, he'd come with a collector friend. We talked about a neighbor of ours who'd been ill, and the potential poltergeist house on said neighbor's Mom's land. You'll hear about this in next week's post. 

Beautiful views from the grounds the con was held on.

Famished we went to the nearby Waynesville institute Ammon's Drive Inn and Dairy Bar, I've been coming hear since I was a kid, I think it opened the year I was born. 

I got a Double Cheese Burger with Mustard and Ketchup cause of course Dean's gotta have a burger, and Tater Tots

   

The Haul:

So let's get into the con haul... Up first is Pins, key chains, and shirt department.

 

 

The pewter Wonder Woman pin and shield were each only a dollar at this one booth. I wished I knew the name of the store. It was a great thrifty geek find. They explained these were over stocks they were trying to move. I had a lovely conversation about Supernatural with the booth owners. One guy and I talked wanting to go to the Charlotte Convention, how at the canceled con last were we gonna have a actor from the show as a guest, and told them about The Horror Band Wagon's hilarious reaction to the "Skin" episode of Supernatural. Seriously watch it, their reaction to the transformation scene will have you in stitches... The woman is in season 2 of her first watch through.  The shirt was my big spender item, Five whole Dollars. It was made by Gifternaut. 

The robot pin is from the official Geek Expo merch table, the D20 that rolled a one was from a D and D table that had these pins that his kids made. I was drawn to it cause it perfectly reflected my mental state the last few weeks: "How can I Live, Laugh, Love in these conditions?!" Captain said it spoke to her too.

 

Next up is my sticker haul. Stickers are great inexpensive items to get from cons if your don't have a lot to spend. I got a bunch of Supernatural stickers, no shock there, from the booth I usually grab some I believe they are called Steam and Steel Apparel. I also was apparently drawn to unicorn and skeleton stickers that day.

 

 

Lastly my candy haul! Upside to having cons near Halloween is you can get some.. to quote an orange cartoon cat "...candy, candy, candy..." 

  

 

  

 

As always the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo is such a welcoming place for us geeks/nerds in Haywood County. If you are in or around Waynesville, North Carolina next year on October 17th I ask you to come in and stay for a spell.

Live Long and Prosper,

*Thrifty Geek* 

Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

 

Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

We have been knocked down

The future murky 

Fear has gripped our hearts

What will we do now?

Is the question that is cried…

Here is the answer my friends

You will become the Links, the Wonder Women, the Katniss Everdeens

You’ll be Avengers, the Rebel Alliance, The Fellowship of the Ring

You’ll take the lessons you’ve ingested all your lives

And be the real life heroes

The lights in the storm 

Defenders of Freedoms

Who will not allow our hard earned rights go without a fight

So grab your morphers, your pens, and pixelated torches

Get the adventuring party ready

For the BBEG is here

So pick yourselves up

Don your armor

We got work to do

Live Long and Prosper my friends 

AARC 2019

Hello my geeky friends,

Saturday my peeps and I attended the Asheville Anime Regional Convention (AARC), it was a world of anime, video games, and just plain geekiness. But before we get to the fun of the day let's look at our players:

Fangirl is rocking her own design of Steven Universe's Rose Quartz, a dark Rose Quartz. She painted the shield herself.

Econut and we'll call this friend Audette went as Bowser and a Evil Peach.

Econut is proud of the Chomp she painted on her vest and the shoes she painted:

Yours truly went as the Doctor. Geronimo! I went with a bow tie Fangirl found for me. I'm gonna use the homemade one for Pumpkinfest this year. Despite it being warm I surprisingly didn't get too hot in my layers.

Ok now you know your characters, lets get on with the tale of our day.  Fangirl and I both left things at our houses my sonic and her shield, luckily we were not far from my house when we had to turn back, but Fangirl's place was halfway across the county. After gathering all our forgotten goods we finally met up with the other two members of our party halfway back the other side of the county, only to be separated again cause their car was unable to move as fast as Fangirl's. It all finally come together when we all met up in the parking lot, and late our Marshmallow Rainbow Maids Cafe reservation, never fear we managed to get another slot.

There was a good crowd at the con...

...and lots of costumes. I saw Deodorant Man at one point (see last years post).

After making a reservation we watched a little of the lip synch battle which Audette had wanted to see. After our brief respite we did a walk through of the Artist Alley. We ran into Amanda Churi the indie Author we've ran into the last few cons we've been to. I purchased the third and final book in her book series The Twisted Trilogy: In Eden's Shadow. Check out her work the trilogy has made for an interesting read.

The best line heard at the con was a girl in a corset who'd said "Goodbye organs, Hello beauty." I got three "Fezzes are cool", and 2 people saying Eccleston was an underrated Doctor, very true.

We went to the Plus Size Cosplay panel were the host we'll call her Velma told us of her struggles of being a plus size cosplayer. I applaud her for telling her story and trying to make plus sized cosplayers the social norm. As a plus size cosplayer myself I'd like to see this. 
After this panel we headed to the Marshmallow Rainbow Maids Cafe room. As we waited we saw the profiles of each maid on the wall. Econut said it'd be funny if we got Maid Gaki, the Sukeban (Gangsta Type). Guess who we got?

When we went in we were given sticks with streamers and bells on them, cat toys as one maid called them, so we could cheer on the maids performance. Which we happily did. after the performance the maids took our order and served us all while we engaged in a game with Maid Gaki called What Do You Meme? We shared a table with a woman dressed as a cat and a  red Power Ranger, who told me David Tennant was going to be at a nearby con, and I'm like put a knife in my heart why don't ya!

Trinkets from the Rainbow Maids

After we got a pic with our maid and returned the cat toys,  we went back to the stage area to watch some of the Asheville Kendo Club demonstrations. After watching some audience members whacking club members with sticks we cruised the dealers area. I got me some more dice and a couple Yugioh cards to add to my collection.

Worn out from our wanderings we sat and watched a bit of A Taste of Asia Dance Fitness while waiting for the Cosplay Contest, only at a con will you see a fitness group with a Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, and Link, Bob Ross, and Dinosaur dancing to the side, did I mention Bob Ross was doing the floss? Again only at a con.

Fangirl bid us adieu as she went to get ready for the contest, then Econut and Audette went to find a place Econut could smoke. So I was the lone picture taker for the group. Fangirl was in the beginners section and I think she did her poses perfectly:

Sadly she didn't place, but she did get a nice applause. I didn't enter cause I figured my Doctor costume would place. The big story was during the journeyman level. A Spiderman Noir had just gone up and he was followed by a Spider Gwen, this also happened in the beginners. As this Spider Gwen was doing her poses Noir gets back on stage and proposes to her:

And if you couldn't tell she said yes. Like I've said only at a con.

We did one more spin through Artist Alley and then we parted ways with Econut and Audette. I have to say a con is more fun when you're in a group of peeps.

Fangirl and I decided to go to this Japanese eatery called Waku Waku, they were offering a discount for AARC cosplayers, and we weren't the only ones. It was like a mini AARC after party. Unfortunately the sudden flux of customers had the small staff swamped trying to keep up orders, so there was a wait for food. We ordered some Takoyaki: Japanese Octopus balls, for our appetizer, not only were these my first octopus balls this was also my first time tasting their Waku Waku sauce. They were good. If I go back may have to get some more. Fangirl and I got the Katsu-Don, she got the pork , I got chicken. It was okay just didn't realize it'd be smothered with onions. I just scrapped it off and added some Waku Waku sauce to the rice so it wasn't just plain rice.

So it was a fun time at the con, looking forward to next year's. I hope you guys have a good week, for those who celebrate Happy Independence Day, and may God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

Free Comic Book Day and Marvel

Hello my nerdy friends,

Free Comic Book Day is coming up. I've made my list of comics I'm particularly interested in, got my big bag ready to hold stuff, and wondering who's dying in Avengers: Endgame, yeah I such an optimist aren't I? Yeah we decided to save this movie for FCBD to continue the tradition, at least for the last few years of a comic book movie on FCBD. Speaking of things Marvel have you seen you guys seen the awesomeness Jimmy Fallon did? That probably is a stupid question isn't it? I wish this song could be available for download.

Captain Marvel
Last month to get ready for Endgame Fangirl and I went and saw Captain Marvel. I have to say after the feels of Infinity War this movie was a little more easier on the emotions except when Stan Lee came on the screen. I mean come on we all had feels there. I love the nostalgia: old businesses and phone booths, I mean even the movie's website screamed 90's, ah the days when almost everyone had a website. I also loved seeing some familiar old faces in this movie, and new ones like Goose! I foresee cats being named Goose. Fangirl thinks the cat was so named for the Spruce Goose, but I say he was named Goose from Top Gun. What do you all think? I think Captain Marvel maybe my third favorite comic hero now. Second being Storm from X-Men, and the top slot going to Wonder Woman.

Free Comic Book Day
One of my favorite geeky holidays is FCBD, it's free comics! I also try to make sure to purchase something so I'm just not getting free stuff, gotta love a massive conscious. I'm looking forward to this year's Doctor Who comic and the Whedonverse one.  Do you guys have any your looking forward to getting?

Well I have a lot of geekiness coming up, I hope you guys have a good week end, and God bless you!
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

A Little Dice Naming 2

Happy Friday Friends,

We've made it to the end of another week. So I decided to end the week with another segment of dice naming, where I give names to dice that may or may not need a future shaming segment. I do hope I never have to do that, that is if I ever get a chance to use them. What can I say backwoods great to live in, but hard to find a game group. Maybe I should take out an ad? *laughs* Anyway here's my latest named ones:

This little red translucent 20 sided beauty is Ruby, no clue weather she's demonic yet or not, that's a shout out to my Supernatural Fans.

I love this ones iridescent surface and sky blue numbering. I keep thinking of pearls when I look at it so I dub her Mother of Pearl. I also can't help hear Mr. Krabs from Spongebob in my head.

Now lastly we have 2 d12 that I think are siblings, maybe fraternal twins, they both give off the same vibe. Allow me to introduce Midnight and Galaxy. I don't know why but I feel Galaxy is the older sib.

Midnight

Galaxy

So you guys think they are well named? Do you guys have cool dice names, let me know in the comments! I hope you all have a good weekend, may you have good dice rolls, and God Bless You!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

Crazy Idea Time: What to do with a Tiny House

Happy week's end my friends,

Another weekend is upon us. I thought for this post that we'd discuss crazy ideas I have about what do do with a Tiny House. One might say live in one, while I do appreciate a home one can move where every they choose to live, I couldn't do it, unless it's a certain blue box. I first heard about tiny homes through Keri Smith's blog, I think there was a link to Tumbleweed Houses, the first company I heard of that made such. So let's see what I'd use it for:

A Dreamer's Hideaway
 
Keri Smith made the suggestion of using one as a writing space at one point, she love to live in one too. Well the former is what Is one of the things what I'd use one for. A place to focus and create. Like SJ Tucker, who has named her recording cabin The Pixie House, I would call my creative sanctum, Dreamer's Hideaway, cause well I'm a dreamer and it'd be my hideaway.
Ok we have a name, where would I put it? Well in the woods, maybe with a view of the mountains as well. What would be the design of it. Backwoods geek meets Junk G?

I have pulled together a Pinterest board with ideas. There's various cute little homes I wouldn't mind creating in. There's old typewriters.  Why? Cause I love vintage type writers, especially a teal Corsair*. I would put up inspiring things, inspiring words, whatever to get the creative juices flowing. Yes just my fantasy wonderland.  Little spaces made for the fairies, or my little creative juices to hang out. The outside like a Alice in Wonderland secret garden.

A place for solitude, but not completely quiet. I'd probably have some music going, you know like Dot Warner in that one ep of Animaniacs. I have to have music or something to listen to when I work.
And oh course despite being a place to seek alone time my friends would be encouraged to visit.

A Toy Museum

The other thing I'd use a small home for is a traveling toy museum. I'd make it up to look like a doll house, within I'd have toys displayed, many if not all from my own collection... well after I spruce the poor dears back up. It'd focus on toys from the late 80's and early 90's cause that's the era I grew up in. Maybe I'd sell items themed toward the era and it's toys, maybe sell some of Fangirl's soap she makes.

Bonus Crazy Idea: Geeky Travels

This departs from the tiny homes, but as I was working on this post I was listen/watching Kara of Boho Berry's Vlog. She's planning on walking the Appalachian Trail, and as I saw her digital planner layouts for this trip it hit me, I've seen a lot of things like guides and stories about the hike, but has anyone done a geek themed one. It'd be interesting to see a guise book geared toward the geeks like comic shops nearby or book stores. Actually is there any geeky travel guides in general out there?

So we come to the close of another post. I just have to ask what would you do with a small home? Have you had any crazy ideas? Let me know in the comments. I hope you have a good weekend friends, keep having ideas, and God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer  and Vampire >vv< Kitty

 *PS- I was at a thrift store one time and came across one for $10, it's a not purchase I kick myself for, it's my dream typewriter.

A Little Dice Naming

Hello Friends,
Tis the day after Christmas and what am I doing? Well nothing much actually. I hope you all are well. I've survived the holiday season, well there's still some holiday celebrating left for us to do, but I'm surviving thus far...

So I've been watching a lot of the first Campaign of the Geek and Sundry show Critical Role. I've noticed some of the players have named their dice, something I also recall from when I watched Barky's Brigade on the Saving Throw channel. So I decided maybe I should give my dice names. I've only begun in the last few years to amass dice beyond the original set I put together for myself at my first con GeekOut. *sniffs* So while I still have a manageable amount I'm gonna give them all names, well as many as I can, that way if I every find myself getting bad roles in a game I have a name to scream for killing me.

First up is this little cute yellow 8 sided die that I purchased at GeekOut from I wanna say a store called The Deck Box. She's a part of my original dice set line up. For her name I was inspired by her color and The Princess Bride and named her Buttercup. A cute name for this little die isn't it?

Buttercup

The next three are new arrivals purchased this year during Free Comic Book Day at The Wyvern's Tale in Asheville, which is an awesome shop they really treated me good when I stopped in there. I also encourage you to check out Comic Envy like right next to it and also on the same road is the North Asheville spot of the Asheville Pizza and Brewery Company.

The first one of this group is a two toned pink 20 sider that I have rolled 20 with a couple times, sadly not in a game. Once more looking to the die's hue I went with the name Bubblegum, because well that's what it made me think of when I gazed upon it. This die is giving off the vibe of either a chick or drag queen.

Bubblegum

This next one is a weather die that I saw and had to add to my collection, though outside of a GM or someone with weather related powers I don't know if I'd use it in a game, but Fangirl suggested I use it when I'm writing to decide the weather, which I have done for one instance. So given it's weathery nature I call him Brother Nature. I don't know why I get a masculine feel from this die, note I don't think blue is strictly a boy color, in fact I'm a chick who's favorite color is blue*.

Brother Nature

This last one I saw and just had to have when I saw it. I mean come on a tiny 6d inside of a blue see through 6d! I think this die would be perfect for some geeky slight of hand magic trick. I can see it in my head, just not a skilled enough magician to come up with how to do it. You more skilled magicians may maybe think along the same lines i am, if you can put it together be my guest, just dazzle me with your trick if you do. Because of the duel nature of this one I call it The Two for One Special.

The Two for One Special

I hope the rest of the year is awesome to you peeps, and may your New Year be equally awesome, or if this year's been sucky, better. God bless you all!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

*Actually one time in elementary school we did this class project about friends where we told something about our friends, and the teacher wrote the girls' answers in pink and boys' in blue, one boy said he wanted his in pink and I said blue, a request denied to keep things organized.