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Dragon Con has been on my bucket list of conventions to attend. From Thursday, August 30 through Monday September 3 an estimated 85,000 fans will descend to Atlanta, take over five major downtown hotels, and geek out 24/7.  Finally, I will be there this year as a newbie!

I will not be the only newbie at the convention.  Four of the cast members from the show “The Expanse,” will also be in attendance.  When Dragon announced the cast coming I got super excited! I am ecstatic that Amazon picked up the for a 4^th season!

Cas Anvar, who plays Martian Alex Kamal, was gracious enough to talk with me about Dragon Con.  It is always fun to talk with Anvar about the show and now about the con.  Enjoy!

TNE:                     Okay, so you’re excited about going to Dragon Con? And this is your first time-

Cas Anvar:          (Excitedly) Oh, my God!

TNE:                     If I recall correctly from our last conversation, I think this is one of the Cons that you wanted to go to.

Cas Anvar:          Oh, my God! First time going to Dragon Con, and you can’t even imagine how excited I am, and we all are. I have heard nothing but spectacular things about Dragon Con and I have been chomping at the bit to go for years. And you know, I heard that if San Diego Comic-Con is kind of like the biggest corporate Con in the world, I’ve heard that Dragon Con is the equivalent for the fans. It’s like the biggest fan-oriented Con in the world. And it’s the place to be if you’re a fan or an artist and you want to just have the best, most incredible time on the planet.

TNE:                     Now, Dragon Con is known for its cosplay.

Cas Anvar:          That’s why I’d heard, yeah.

TNE:                     So, is there any particular awesome cosplay that you wouldn’t mind seeing, either from the show or just in general?

Cas Anvar:          Hmm. Let’s see … I mean, I’m a huge fan of these hardcore, professional cosplayers ’cause the work that they do, the artistry, the professionalism . . .  They make costumes that are beyond even film quality, and I’m amazed by that. I’m a big fan of the really good Wolverine stuff, and Avengers stuff. But if we’re gonna see something from the show, I haven’t seen a real good Alex Kamal. I have not seen that yet. So, I would love to see that. I would love to see a protomolecule Julie Mao.

TNE:                     Oh, that’d be cool!

Cas Anvar:          Haven’t seen many of those yet. Or just a really hardcore tattooed, scarf tied Belter.

TNE:                     That could work too.

Cas Anvar:          Like one of the more extreme OPA Belters that do some real crazy shit with their hair and their tats.

TNE:                     Or even one of the Mars Soldiers in one of those suits.

Cas Anvar:          Oh yeah, I mean that … you’re right, actually. That’s gonna actually require a lot of work, but if you wanna build a Goliath armor, one of Bobbie Draper’s war machines, that would be phenomenal. That I have not seen. I haven’t seen the Martian Marines, like the armor that we wear on the Roci, or definitely haven’t seen Bobbie’s armor.

TNE:                     Well, we may be able to see it- at DragonCon. I mean, who knows?

Cas Anvar:          Well, I have seen Iron Man before, so that’s … if that can be done. . .

TNE:                     So now that you’re gonna be in Atlanta, is this also your first time in Atlanta?

Cas Anvar:          It’s not my first time in Atlanta, it’s DEFINITELY my first DragonCon.

TNE:                     Are there any places that you haven’t had a chance to go to before, but now hopefully you may be able to get to go? Or is it just mostly gonna be DragonCon, but you’re just happy to go to DragonCon anyway?

Cas Anvar:          What do you mean, like around the world? Or in Atlanta?

TNE:                     In Atlanta.

Cas Anvar:          You know what, I’m gonna be there for quite a few days, actually. I’m flying in I think … if everything goes well, I’m flying in on the 29th, ’cause there’s a lot of press that they’ve got me doing. So I’m actually gonna have some good amount of time to explore. I’m gonna be staying until the Con is over on the 2nd or the 3rd. I am looking forward … the only thing I can think of off the top of my head, because I haven’t done my research yet, I’d love to visit the set of The Walking Dead. But I don’t know if that’s gonna happen.

TNE:                     [Laughs]Of course, right? It’s all top secret.

Cas Anvar:          Yeah. But I will say this, I was working on a film in Europe about two, three weeks ago called The Operative. And the lead of the film is Diane Kruger, who is very very much in love with Norman Reedus, who is one of the leads on The Walking Dead. So maybe I can pull that string.

TNE:                     Yeah, you can send him a Tweet, be like, “Hey Norman, uh … can you help a brother out?”

Cas Anvar:          “Help a brother out.” I’d love that. You just gave me an idea. I think I’ll try that.

TNE:                     Just send him a Tweet, that’ll be happening. Well thank you, Cas, for taking the time to talk to me.

Cas Anvar:          Let’s do it, man. Let’s do it. I can’t wait. And what I would tell the fans is that the four of us are gonna be there for three panels. We’re doing one panel every day, and we’re doing signings every day, and we’re doing photo ops every day. And this is the first time the cast has come together to thank the fans for saving the show, because it literally was the fans that moved the mountain that got Amazon to pick us up. And this will be the first time that we have come together as a group to say thank you.

TNE:                     That will be awesome!

Cas Anvar:          And we are absolutely thrilled to be doing that at DragonCon, which is the penultimate fan convention in the world. So, come out in droves, and come see our three panels. There’s two topics: one is gonna be called “The Science of The Expanse, which is gonna be all the amazing science that we integrate into the show. . . We really use science as a character, and we use science to make the drama in the show even more intense. Which is very different than pretty much all other science fiction TV out there. They usually invent rules, and reinvent science. So we love that claim to fame.

And the other panel is going to be the . . . it’s called “Space Race: The Mosaic of The Expanse.” And it [is] really . . . very important aspect to television right now. And it is the diversity in the show. We’ve been hailed for our scientific accuracy and we’ve been hailed in the press and in the fandom for our ethnic diversity, and gender diversity in the sense that we have some of the most powerful female characters on TV in our show. Many of them are not white. So, we have like . . . in Season Three, we have eight female characters, and 70, 80% of them are not white. None of them revolve around a man, and all of them are pivotal and absolutely critical to the advancement of the stories. Many of whom save our butts.

TNE:                     Yes, I was gonna say, “Bobbie done saved y’alls butts.”

Cas Anvar:          Right?

TNE:                     Chrisjen saves y’all butts …

Cas Anvar:          Exactly! Avasarala is a force of nature.

TNE:                     Oh my gosh, I love her!

Cas Anvar:          Melba, Clarissa Mao, she saves the entire universe.

TNE:                     Yes!

Cas Anvar:          Right! And Drummer, let’s not forget Drummer. Drummer’s an amazing character who is a butt-kicker all to herself.

TNE:                     Yes, and she handles those other Belters with … Yes. Absolutely.

Cas Anvar:          Right, right. She does not let them forget who’s boss. So yeah, it is an incredibly diverse show, and we think that’s incredibly important and we’re having an entire panel where we’re going to be showing clips from the show, showing videos of the characters, and talking to the audience about how important it is to them to see a show where the world around us is being so well-represented and so accurately represented in terms of its ethnic and gender diversity. So those are our two panels.

TNE:                     Awesome.

Cas Anvar:          And there’s gonna be videos in both.

TNE:                     Yes, I’m hoping to make an appearance and have a good seat!

Cas Anvar:          Absolutely.

TNE:                     Well thank you, Cas.

Cas Anvar:          My pleasure.

TNE:                     And have a good day. . .

Cas Anvar:          Thank you very much. I’d like to. . . see you again. Take care.

TNE:                     Alright, bye bye.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my conversation with Anvar talking about season 3!

What are you most looking forward to at Dragon Con? Sound off below in the comments!

The post Dragon Con: Cas Anvar is a Newbie Too! appeared first on The Nerd Element.

Amid news that majority poor, black Randolph County in rural Georgia is slated to have about 75% of its voting locations closed before the Nov. 6 election, Stacey Abrams did not pause to gripe or moan. She’s too busy talking about job creation and expanding opportunities to SRO crowds at stops in every single one of the state’s 159 counties in a tireless endeavor to win votes.

Of course, her office did issue a statement decrying the plan to shutter seven of Randolph County’s nine polling locations. The board of elections claims the sites are not accessible to those with disabilities. Meanwhile, closing them would require some to travel an extra 10 miles to vote. How does that help the disabled?

“Efforts to suppress the vote & depress voter turnout are alive & well in Georgia,” Abrams tweeted. She sent an email to her supporters stating that a “proposal to eliminate nearly every polling location in a Black Belt county belongs in a history textbook, not the current events section.” But she kept stepping and stumping and scoring where she could. (The Randolph County Board of Elections ended up voting to not shut down the seven polling places).

In her historic bid for the head of state, she has come to embody her own words, “The way to win is to try.” Armed with a lifetime of experience in seeking breakthrough roles, it would be tough to throw anything at Abrams that she hasn’t already battled or anticipated.

Whether you’re in the midst of your own quest for new chances, or simply need to be inspired by someone who never says die, here are some gems from Abrams’ book, Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change.

18 Great Stacey Abrams Quotes 

Not everyone’s ambitions will be world domination or Carnegie Hall, but we should be driven beyond what we know and feel safe doing.

If you can walk away for days, weeks, or years at a time, it is not an ambition, it’s a wish. Wishes feel good and rarely come true. Ambition, on the other hand, fuels your days and refuses to be ignored. It challenges your sense of self and fulfills your sense of wonder.

Like most who are underestimated, I have learned to over-perform and find soft but key ways to take credit. Because ultimately, leadership and power require the confidence to effectively wield both.

We all set our sights on jobs we want, titles we covet. But, like dating the wrong person, we have to learn to understand what is truly for us and be willing to break up to find the real thing.

When we show up, act boldly, and practice the best ways to be wrong, we fail forward. No matter where we end up, we’ve grown from where we began.

(Instagram)

We must cease being participants in our own oppression.

Admitting mistakes is a fundamental skill too few of us learn. In part, this is because we’ve been taught it’s wrong to be wrong.

Invention, discovery, and empires are built of chances taken with high degrees of failure.

Effective leaders are able to say to the person they want to impress most: “I don’t know.”

The most significant successes come from letting your light shine, embracing failure, and getting good at being wrong.

Names matter; labels matter. We should always pursue the highest title available and fight for the labels that reflect our clout.

The anchors of belief should never weigh down the capacity for thoughtful engagement and reasonable compromise.

Effective leaders must be truth seekers, and that requires a willingness to understand truths other than our own.

(Instagram)

Good leaders are always at the ready, but not always at the front.

Remember this in the darkest moments, when the work doesn’t seem worth it, and change seems just out of reach: out of our willingness to push through comes a tremendous power… Use it.

Not only must we stop telling ourselves no, we have to internalize our right to make mistakes and to use each error as an entry point to more knowledge.

Financial independence gives us the power to decide our futures and liberate our conception of what’s possible.

We will all, at some point, encounter hurdles to gaining access and entry, moving up and conquering self-doubt; but on the other side is the capacity to own opportunity and tell our own story.

The post 18 Uplifting, Ass-Kicking Stacey Abrams Quotes appeared first on Black Enterprise.

We’ve seen incredible, massive LEGO builds before, including amazing cars, but the LEGO Technic team has moved the standard for impressive assemblies forward–literally. Their full-sized scale model LEGO Bugatti Chiron is a first of its kind, because even though it’s made up entirely of LEGO Technic elements it is totally drivable.

This gorgeous, life-sized scale model, which amazingly doesn’t rely on any glue, made its premiere in Monza Italy at the Grand Prix Formula 1 event on August 30. The car can fit two people, weighs over 3,300 pounds, and is made from over one million LEGO Technic elements. “Equipped with a rear spoiler, speedometer, front and back-lights, detachable steering wheel and brake pedal, all fully functional and built of LEGO Technic elements,” it required 339 different types of Technic elements, and over 13,000 man hours from development to construction.

Even if the car didn’t run this would be an incredible LEGO recreation, because the Bugatti Chiron’s sleek design doesn’t exactly scream “LEGO.” But what makes this truly special is it’s entirely powered by 2,304 LEGO Power Function motors and 4,032 Technic gear wheels, and can generate 5.3 horse power and roughly 92 Nm of torque. Former race car driver Andy Wallace reached 12.4 miles per hour when he took it for a test drive, which might not sound very fast (especially compared to the real version that can reach 261 mph) until you remember what the car is made of.

You can see more photos of the car from construction to completion in our gallery below, but if you’d like your very own model LEGO Technic Bugatti a 1:8 scale model set was released in stores and online earlier in August.

Everything about this life-sized model is impressive, but now we can’t wait to see what the Technic team comes up with next. Anyone know if LEGO components can fly?

What mode of transportation should LEGO try to build next? Drive into our comments section to tell us your best idea.

Images: LEGO Technic