A Post-Expo Post

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Since I mentioned last week that I'd be at the Fan Expo I thought I'd follow up on that a bit this week.  Also, for those of you who didn't check the comments section, Gray listed some really good info about finding stuff to do in Toronto.  I said that I wanted to extrapolate that data a little bit, and after checking out the info that Gray posted I've come to the conclusion that your first step in finding excitement in a new city should actually be to determine what the best venues are.  If you check the page for the Convention Centre downtown it lists every event that will be hosted there for many months in advance.  It's a perfect way to find something fun to do.

Okay, on to the Fan Expo.  This was an interesting experience for sure.  It's not one that I intend to repeat, but I'm glad that I made it there to see what it was all about.  As with most things in Toronto this particular event was organized by chimps.  Not particularly bright chimps either.  You know how some chimps could be taught sign language, but sometime horrible people have been teaching chimps to smoke cigarettes?  These would be the smoking chimps, not the sign language ones.

Okay, enough about chimps.

There were about 8 different lines to get into the place, and not a single employee had been given the slightest clue of what line any one person should be in.  So I just jumped in one (the correct one, hooray for me!) and hoped for the best, but I was surrounded by people who were asking anyone in hearing range if THEY knew what line they were supposed to be in.  A sea of very confused people is a strange thing to behold.

Eventually we all go in to the centre though and it was quite the event.  Easily the best part of the whole show for me was the tendency for people who attend these events to show up in costume.  Some of these costumes were phenomenal too, and I shudder to think of just how much work must have went into their production.  If there had been somewhere to sit down I would have happily parked myself for hours and watched the flow of strangely dressed people.  As it was I don't think there was a square inch of that place not occupied by one human or another.

In the end it was that constant crush of people that got to me.  I've never been a very big fan of crowds, and pushing through the swarms of people just took it's toll.  Despite the fact that I wasn't really DOING anything other than just wandering around it was a tiring day.  Like I said, not really my cup of tea, but all the same a highly interesting experience.

Now I'm looking forward to the Food and Wine Expo!  That even is still crowded, but to a lesser degree, and it's always much better organized.  Also, booze.  So yeah.

There was something INCREDIBLE that I saw at the Expo, which I feel the need to share with you all before I go.  Some absolute geniuses at a company called Universal Designs Ltd. are making fully functional, leather motorcycle suits complete with CE-approved armour, but modelling them after suits from popular sci-fi/comic book movies.  How awesome is that?  Check out their website here:

http://www.udreplicas.com

The suits are somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1000, which, given that you get a jacket, pants, and gloves, and taking into consideration that I paid almost $500 for a jacket alone, you're looking at a reasonable deal.  If I was even remotely in the market for a new jacket I think you'd see me riding down the road dressed like Batman.

http://www.udreplicas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/943318265_3bk8g-L.jpg

Well, speaking of motorcycles, I think it's past time that I jumped on mine and got myself to work!  I hope you're all having a lovely day, and I'll talk to you next week.