Forward into the past at the Ontario Convention Center's Retro Gaming Expo

H/T to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which reported that the Retro Gaming Expo will take place at the Ontario Convention Center on February 4 (9 to 5) and February 5 (9 to 4).

The third annual event...will feature the largest collection to celebrate 30 years of “The Legend of Zelda,” a cosplay contest and panels, as well as vendors selling retro games, and arcade cabinets and pinball machines – all set to free play.

When I was growing up, the idea of pinball machines and arcade cabinets all set to free play would be a wild dream. Of course, when I was growing up, they didn't have cosplay contests at convention centers either.

The free play, however, isn't really free:

Pre-Sale Ticket Price:
$25 - for Sat Day Admssion
$18 - for Sun Day Admssion
$35 - for Two Day Admission (Saturday and Sunday)

Children 10 and under free, limit 2 children per paid ticket


At the Door Ticket Price:
$30 - for Sat Day Admssion
$20 - for Sun Day Admssion
$40 - for Two Day Admission (Saturday and Sunday)

Children 10 and under free, limit 2 children per paid ticket

That's a lot of quarters.

Other local blogs, the January 2017 edition

I recently conducted a semi-vanity search - I was searching for the phrase used in one of my recent posts, "My philosophy is color philosophy," and the search hit on a blogroll at the Original Skrip blog site.

I've lost track of a lot of these sites since Google Reader's demise, and I need to repopulate my feedly feed for local blogs.

Original Skrip itself last posted in November, writing about Pomona/Claremont Package Thieves. (Hope they caught the woman.)

Images of Pomona wrote about the Seashore Trolley Museum - which isn't in Pomona, but looks nice.

David Allen recently wrote about Gravity Hill in the north Upland area.

The Goddess of Garey Avenue had a winter-themed post that included the view from the Pomona Valley Mining Company.

Everything else in the blogroll is either out of area, or very old.

If you have an Inland Empire/Inland Valley/Pomona Valley/whatever blog, feel free to mention it in the comments.

P.S. For those who remember the Inland Empress, she now lives WAY inland - as in Arizona. She is now a teacher and is very happy.

My philosophy is color philosophy (or, two views of a trade show booth)

This post was originally going to be placed into my Empoprise-BI business blog, until I did a little digging...

As many of you know, today - Saturday, January 21 - is the day that women are marching on...Phoenix. Specfically to the Phoenix Convention Center, where the Craft & Hobby Association is holding its Creativation show. And while I kinda sorta don't meet the monthly traffic volume required to get a media credential, I can certainly cover the show from afar. Afar being Ontario, California...

...which is northeast of a city called Chino, California, home of Prima Marketing. If you haven't heard about the company, it began by manufacturing artificial paper flowers, and has since expanded its line tremendously. Therefore Prima has a booth at Creativation, and is posting Facebook Live videos from this booth, which allow the Uncredentialed (not to be confused with the Deplorables or the Nasty Women) to see what they're selling.

So here's a video in which Prima Marketing is talking about its Color Philosophy product.



Meanwhile, all of the craft stores are flocking to Creativation to see all the products, and here's a video from one of these stores, Scrapbooking Made Simple in Santa Clarita, California. (Yes, Scrapbooking Made Simple also has an online business.)



And after watching the second video, you'll know where I got the title to this post. (Although if I'm a winner winner chicken dinner, I'll probably give the prize away to somebody.)

Sometimes we in the IE overreact to weather...a bit

If you have friends from outside of southern California, they probably think that your reactions to bad weather are ridiculous. After all, while we DO have serious weather at times, there are many other times in which we launch into STORMWATCH mode when a few drips occur. Then we all turn to Los Angeles local news to see on the scene reporters pointing out...puddles.

Last Saturday, when the weather was a little less severe out here, I shared a Facebook Live video that demonstrated our love of overreactions.

And yes, I even pointed out a puddle.



P.S. If you're on Facebook, be sure to check out the Empoprise-IE Facebook page.

Riverside Kmart on Iowa Avenue to close

According to Business Insider, the Kmart at 3001 Iowa Avenue in Riverside, California is one of the Sears/Kmart stores that will be closing by April of this year.

I've blogged about Kmart's troubles before in my Empoprise-BI business blog, most recently in October. At the time, I said:

Let's see what happens after Christmas.

While this isn't the "retail apocalypse" that Infowars was talking about earlier in the year, we're not Making American Retail Great Again by any stretch.