When at Comic Con, Do it Joyfully!

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This  week I  discuss  enjoying your  passions through the lens of our local Gem State Comic Con.

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Hops Geek News

My fondness for Buck Rogers

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:03):
Hello there friends, both old and new. Welcome to the
Strive Seek Find podcast. I'myour host, Chance Whitmore, home
to bite sized lifestyle advicefrom a fellow traveler on the
road to a better life. Broughtto you by someone who is a
longtime educator, writer,parent, and an outdoor

(00:26):
enthusiast, who may just maylike a good draft, because our
future is set not just throughour choices, but by our
willingness to explore and finda better way. Hey, welcome back,
everyone. I know it's been acouple of weeks. I've been I
won't say otherwise indisposed,but in my own head the last few

(00:50):
weeks, I had the benefit thisweek of having a week off. So
promptly, the weather wentwintry. And so it's not lack of
time that's kept episodes fromcoming out this time. It's me
sitting in front of the mic. itdisturbed me the last couple of
weeks, because I had what was agreat episode idea I put

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together and when I sat down torecord, there was nothing upbeat
about what should have been afunny episode. It was terse, it
was angry. And I was not evenaware of it when I recorded it.
So I stepped back from the mic,I let my wife listen to it. And
she agreed that it was not whatI was looking for. And I had to

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walk away. And I'm not 100% surethat I am all the way back yet.
But but for all that. Thisweekend, I had a an experience
that I just wanted to share thisweek was the gem state ComiCon
and I've been before, but notsince before COVID. And I'm
gonna give a special shout outhere to hops geek news for the

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tickets that got my wife and IN. We bought the kids tickets,
obviously. But those guys do agreat job with all things
geekery. And I really appreciatewinning the drain when they
interviewed the people behindgem state Comicon. So you have a
second gift that when a thatepisode, listen, I'll include a

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link down in the show notes. I'dseen the advertisements, I'd
said I gotta go. But gettingthose tickets really, really
helped me out it notfinancially, but it was a kick
in the butt to actually get thebuy the rest of the tickets
purchased and get myselfinvolved again. And the fact

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that was on this weekend. Theend of spring break made it even
easier, because it gave the kidstime to do what they really
wanted to do, which is to figureout and put together their
cosplay costumes. Now, they getthat not from me, but from their
mother, who seems to enjoy it.
And she even used her makeupbusiness a few years ago to sell

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her makeup for cosplay overthere. And I imagine someday
that will come back as well. Iwasn't going to wear a costume.
But last week's episode of theMandalorian gave me a idea that
I couldn't pass up withoutgiving too much away. I went as
a Star Wars character, a sidecharacter in Star Wars at this

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point, Dave Filoni also known asthe person behind some of the
great Star Wars animation and alot of the stuff that you're
getting on Disney plus now. Easycostume. I wear a cowboy hat.
Wear a t shirt that says StarWars with a nametag. Hi, I'm
Dave. Most people got it. Wellrephrase. Most Star Wars geeks

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got it. Because when you go tocons, you're going to meet
people who are very attached totheir fandoms. Which brings me
to my point today. I don't wantto give a report on the blow by
blow of this. It was fun. Andit's also a tremendous reminder.
Whatever you do, do itpassionately. Do it joyfully.

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And one of the great things Igot to see while I was at the
con yesterday was people doingjust that. enjoying themselves
with others with similarsimilarity of interest. Just
being together and sharing acommon love. In this case of a
fandom, start with my kids andthen move on to what I witnessed

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there. have raised geeks There'sno way around that. And I'm
pretty pleased with that fact,because that means I actually
have something that can eventalk to my preteen and teen
about other than schoolwork andsports. Each of them had their
own idea and fandom that theywanted to address. For instance,

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the youngest, pulled out herWonder Woman costume and jumped
right in that and couldn't waitto show off his Wonder Woman,
and very disappointed that she'dlost her lasso of truth. My
oldest, when is a Shadowhunter,from whatever young adult novel
series that she was reading on.

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She seems to really enjoy it.
And people recognized her. Andbased on the books, because I
don't think there's been atelevision series on this one.
I'm probably wrong, becauseevery young adult series seems
to have one now. My middledaughter sat down in a very
short period of time andborrowed my mando helmet that

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she had bought for me forChristmas several years ago, and
built herself cardboardMandalorian armor with the help
of her mother. And we're that.
And I already mentioned myFiloni costume. Yes, that is
probably a geek deep cut onthat. But I'm pleased with the

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number of people who recognizedit. The older two specifically,
problem solving with joy, sothat they could pull off showing
off what they loved about thatfandom. They can feel pure joy
in doing this, which is powerfulfrom the perspective that SEEN
PEOPLE DO something they enjoyputs you ahead of people who are

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just constantly grinding, whichadmittedly is in my tradition,
to a certain extent. And itwasn't just my girls, Gem state
Comic Cons a small regional con,which is really cool. I've been
to at least two larger ones muchlarger one in Boise when Wizard

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World came to town, and thenI've been down to Phoenix in
Salt Lake. Both of them greatexperiences, very different.
Here, there was more opportunityto sit and talk to people. I
kept going up and visiting withpeople from the five oh, first.
And if you're not aware, it's acause play group that is

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dedicated to being screenaccurate, because they go and do
hospital visits for kids. Theydo have a relationship with
Lucas Films. And it's prettyincredible. They do great work.
And their costumes areincredible. The passion these
people feel for the work they'redoing and it's great work. They

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were donating their time andtheir proceeds to the Jayden
Maloof DeLuca foundation here intown this weekend. And then
afterwards, after one of themwas out of costume, he and I sat
well stood out in front of theirdisplay and visited about
variety of Star Wars propertieshad a great time. They'd found a

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way to have fun and to do goodat the same time. And with that
came acceptance of otherpeople's enjoyment of their own
fandoms and their their own takeon fandoms whether it was Star
Wars comic books, anime, some ofthem I don't have any clue what
they are. I've aged way out ofthis, the recognition and

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acceptance that my kids gotthere. I mean, my middle
daughter who had her cardboardarmor on was posing with people
had 3d printed Mandalorian armorthat was screen accurate for
paws Vizla and a couple othersthat I didn't even recognize
them. I think I'm a pretty bigStar Wars geek. But there was

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joy and acceptance on bothsides. I know I've talked in the
past about gatekeeping and toxicfandoms. And they do exist. But
I didn't see any evidence of it.
While I was at the conyesterday. No one getting after
someone because they weredressed is Boba Fett because
they were overweight or femaleor whatever else. No one

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complaining about no one gettingafter anyone for not liking the
sequel trilogy or the prequeltrilogy. And for all the ComiCon
examples today. And it was agreat one. Good job Jim state
ComiCon and everyone whoattended. It ends up where we
started. It doesn't have to beabout comics or movies or

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anything else or booksWhat it is, is finding somebody
to talk about something you'repassionate about something you
enjoy and enjoying theircompany. You can do it with
sports fans, you can do it withhikers, you can do it with
kayakers, you can do it withjust about anyone. You just have

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to get out there and look andwalk in with an open heart so
that you realize that your wayis not the only way. And this
weekend, at least, I had a greatexperience with it. Now after
meandering around on this for awhile, I am going to share a
couple of cool moments for me atthe con. Finding someone else

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who is still aware of the 1930sto 50s Buck Rogers, and had been
3d printing and making the chipsfrom this comic strips. That was
really cool. I did an episode Myfirst or second season, talking
about how some of it doesn't agewell. And let me tell you, some

(10:59):
of it really doesn't age well.
I'll try to remember to put alink to that episode in the show
notes. But it brought a lot backI bought a ship from the comic
strip and I'm going to displayat my office. Because there was
a joy in those comic strips,those adventure strips that I

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loved growing up. I didn'trecognize the problematic parts
till much later. The joy my kidshad from interacting with people
who recognized what they weretrying to do with their
costumes. And finally runninginto my friend Russ, and getting
to visit with him. Bout all thisfandom and the con even while we

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are surrounded by adding hugehuge crowd of people. It was
good day. Animator Java 10. Atleast try to go check out a
small regional con when you havethe opportunity. Well friends,
that's it for this week'sedition of strife seek find.
Thank you again for listening.
If you'd like to join thediscussion, or have ideas for

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future episodes, hop on over tothe strife seek find podcast
group on Facebook.
Alternatively, if Facebook's notyour thing, you can find me on
Instagram at strife seek findpodcast on Twitter, as at chance
Whitmore five, or even on email.
Links for all those are in theshow notes below. Until next

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time, my friends, keep seekingyour own brilliant future