Oops

Alright. So... I've failed at blogging again. It's always Comic-Con that throws me off. It's so hard to keep up with everything when there's so much going on and so little down time. And then it's so hard to catch up afterwards that I just get all defeated and don't want to bother.

But then Comic-Con also inspires me to want to blog again! For example, Andrea and I just got our badges for our FIFTH COMIC-CON IN A ROW! And that's exciting. So I want to blog about it. But then I look back and see that I really left things kind of up in the air last time. But... oh well, it doesn't matter, I'm still excited. And writing about my excitement is a good start to getting back into the swing of things.

So yeah, Comic-Con 2015 pre-registration happened two weeks ago yesterday, and if you followed me on Twitter you would have seen how extremely nervous and excited I was. I was literally sitting in front of my computer staring at the yellow status bar in the virtual waiting room for over an hour. Luckily, they kept us entertained with said status bar, throwing out lots of nerd culture references and words of encouragement.

When 9am finally hit and they started putting people through to the registration page, the nervous excitement pretty much boiled over as Andrea and I sat in front of our computers, texting back and forth. And then it happened. I was IN! I went to work and reserved our 4-day plus preview night badges and was done by 9:20am. It was a blur of excitement. And now we're going to San Diego yet again!

The other day Andrea and I were talking about the fact that this will be our fifth year in a row, and it's something we don't want to give up because the preregistration gives us that extra chance to make it in. But if ever this whole thing loses its excitement, that will be when we consider giving it up. But right now, we both are still way too excited to give it up.

And this year we will have at least one extra person with us, as Mama W (Andrea's mom) will be joining us in San Diego! And we're still hopeful that more of our friends will get badges when open registration happens 'cause it would be kind of awesome to have more people with us. Planning out our attack, divide and conquer, make the very best of Comic-Con! Plus... with more people we can look at making hotel costs cheaper!

And speaking of hotels, hopefully we can manage to book a downtown hotel this year! That would be kind of awesome. While I like the mall near our hotel for the last three years, it would be really nice to not have to shuttle to the convention centre every day. And it would make things much easier if we need to camp out over night for the ridiculously popular panels.

But anyway... Comic-Con is still many months away, so I shouldn't get too carried away. I've still got to secure the time off work, and save up the funds for hotel, food, and spending. But for the money side of things it's definitely never too early to start preparing. But for now, it is time to sleep! G'night!

(I almost didn't post this. I accidentally closed the window, and was worried it didn't auto-save, but it did, so that's cool. When I went in to find this so I could post it, I discovered that this is post number 80 of my blog, which is kind of a cool milestone. But maybe not of you take into account that I've had this blog for over 5 years...)

SDCC 2014 - Day Two

And we're back for more San Diego Comic-Con coverage! Friday, day two of SDCC was really a day of exploring for Andrea and I, and it was a lot of fun!

We decided to sleep in a bit, which was nice at the time, but turned out to maybe be a mistake when it came time to take the shuttle to the convention centre. We waited over half an hour for a shuttle, and finally Andrea decided to go grab us food while we waited. And that's when suddenly the shuttles started showing up. I made it all the way to the very front of the line, and then just in time, Andrea showed up with our breakfast.

When we got to Petco Park where our bus dropped us off, we decided to explore outside the convention. First, we went by the annoying Christian Cosplayers (as we call them), some angry group of religious people with signs and megaphones preaching about hell and damnation. The other day we saw some people following them with signs of their own, "Godzilla Saves", "Kneel Before Zod", and a few others.

Anyway, we went by them and spotted a great Alice and Mad Hatter having a tea party on the grass in front of the Marriott. We asked to take a picture, and they invited us to join them. It was really odd and fun. They had their accents, were totally in character, and introduced themselves and their other guests, a TARDIS, the Doctor, another Doctor, and another girl. It was really random, but a great start to the day.

We said thanks and goodbye, and continued on our journey. We went through a Simpsons zone, complete with giant Homer's head sticking out of the ground and a lot of odd Simpsons art. Next was the Batman zip line through the skyline of Gotham, which had a ridiculous line. But we did get to see Mary Poppins zip down with her umbrella. We also saw a big Godzilla statue thing made of tires or something? I dunno.

Anyway, after that, we headed back into the convention centre and got in our first line of the day: Starbucks! Caffeine is important at comic-con. After a long long wait, where a drink for James sat on the counter being called out for a good ten minutes, we finally got our coffees and headed upstairs for the Marvel: Avengers NOW! panel, where they talked about the new initiative pushing a bunch of new Avengers-related #1s. Somethig about the panel did make me want to read Avengers World, which I had pretty much written off, but it sounds like it might be fun. They also talked about the new (lady) Thor series, Sam Wilson taking over as All-New Captain America, and Superior Iron Man, all of which sound pretty exciting. And a new Angela series that looks like it could be fun.

After this was over, we left the convention centre again to check out the Nintendo Gaming Lounge, the Xbox Lounge, and we grabbed our Hannibal soundtracks from the fulfilment room for free stuff. Of particular note was a contest to win a whole bunch of different custom Xbox One systems, and lots of awesome game demos at both Xbox and Nintendo.

After this, Andrea decided we'd waited long enough, and needed our guacamole fix, so we headed to our favourite place in San Diego, La Puerta. And it was glorious. There was a bit of a wait, but the food was soooo gooood, and I got a little bit drunk off of two mojitos. Oops. I'm a lightweight, I'll admit it. I don't drink much anymore, so it hits me hard. Anyway, the guacamole was magic, and my tacos were delicious, and when we left, I felt I was going to explode.

Next, we headed to the Ballroom 20 line again, and this time we had a bit of a walk, and a bit of a wait, but we got in during the panel for the Originals. I don't know anything about this show, and I don't really care about it, so I decided to take that time to catch up on my blogging. (Much like I am doing right now!)

The reason we got in line for Ballroom 20 was right after the Originals panel ended, Arrow! We got to see Stephen Amell, Colton Haynes, John Barrowman, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne, and David Ramsey, plus the showrunners and a writer for the show. This panel was great. There were so many cute moments between the cast members, Willa cuddling up to Daddy Barrowman, and various imitations of that, plus John Barrowman being hilarious and ridiculous. And the showrunners were totally nerding out, which is always fun to see. The other thing I noticed was how different Stephen Amell sounds from Oliber Queen and the Arrow. He just sounds so genuine and endearing. I won't lie, I'm a little more attracted to him. The men on this show are all pretty attractive.

So after this panel, we really didn't have anything else we wanted to do, so we headed back to the hotel to relax and recharge (ourselves, and our devices). Our plan was to rest up and then head back to the convention centre to get in the Hall H line for the next day, 'cause we figured camping out from 10pm on, we'd make it into Hall H for all of the great panels the next day (Warner Bros., Women Who Kick Ass, Marvel Studios). But we decided to do some research on twitter before dedicating our night to this, and it's a good thing we did, because after searching #HallHLine, we learned people had been lined up since 3pm, way before they were allowed to be lined up, and there were already thousands of people in line by the time the line officially opened up. It was ridiculous, so we abandoned that idea and formulated a new plan.

Instead of spending our evening sitting around on a sidewalk, we went to the AMC Theatre nearby and did our fourth annual Comic-Con movie night and saw Hercules. It was a pretty fun movie. Interesting reinterpretation of the stories, and it fit in with our theme of Comic-Con movies. And that brought us past midnight, so the end of Day Two of SDCC! It was another really fun day, and it's continued on, so again, stay tuned!

SDCC 2014 - Day One

Okay! So like I mentioned in yesterday's post, after the disappointing Preview Night, Thursday was much much better.

We decided to get to the convention centre a little bit early to try to get into the Funko booth again. We swung by once, saw it was the same ridiculousness as before, and decided to write off getting any exclusives. We DID still want to get some non-exclusive Funko Pop! figures, so we headed off to the various booths selling them.

And it was a good thing we did! A bunch of the other exhibitors had managed to obtain a bunch of the exclusives, so we decided to buy a few. The were marked up significantly above the Funko prices, but to not have to deal with that headache, we went for it. There was one booth that was selling them for ridiculous prices, between two others, Andrea and I managed to pick up some good ones. (I got Bloody Sharknado, Bruised Buffy, plus the Unmasked Desthstroke I got the day before.)

After our successful Exclusive-hunting, Andrea and I were both feeling way happier, and much more motivated to get our Comic-Con on. We did a little bit of exploring in the exhibition hall, saw the awesome Lego Groot and Rocket Raccoon statue, an amazing giant Smaug with sleepy eyes that open and close, plus Lola on display at the Marvel booth.

At this point, we switched our focus to panels! We had plans on getting into the Ballroom 20 line for a panel in the afternoon, but when we got there, we just... walked right in... Now, if you've never been to Comic-Con, you may not understand how crazy that statement is. We tried to get in two years ago, and the line was probably a mile long, at least. Just crazy.

So anyway, we walked right in to Ballroom 20 at the end of the 24 panel, so we got to see the handsome Kiefer Sutherland up on the stage. I didn't pay a lot of attention 'cause I don't watch the show. I do remember someone requesting a "dammit" in the audience questions portion. Next was Under the Dome, which I do still watch, but I can't figure out why. It's terrible. But we saw pretty well the whole cast up there. Mike Vogel was handsome as ever, and it's always cool to see Dean Norris (breaking Bad! Woo!). Of particular note was that Rachelle Lefevre dressed up as Starbuck from BSG, and Alexander Koch dressed up as Daryl from the Walking Dead. Otherwise I mostly laughed at the should-be-dramatic moments in the exclusive footage.

After that was Scorpion, which I had only heard a little bit about and had sort of written it off, but they showed the pilot episode, and it was actually really good. I am definitely adding it to my PVR in the fall. Next was Reign. And while I have absolutely no interest in the show, the panel and cast were very fun to watch. They were kind of crazy and really funny. Following that was the TV Guide tribute panel to Community, which was another great panel. Seven seasons and a broadway musical! It was great to see how happy Joel McHale was that it got picked up again, and Dan Harmon was reading the twitter feeds about the panel, as the panel was going. I've always loved this show, and I'm looking forward to what is coming with it.

Finally, the panel we really wanted to see, the cast, and showrunner, of Teen Wolf took the stage. This panel was... ridiculous. I loved it. Tyler Posey really doesn't seem to have any filter on what he says, and the guys all have a great time. Holland and Shelley were both adorable, and Jeff Davis has really nice arms. They also showed some exclusive footage for the rest of the current season, which makes me glad I have a buddy to watch it with, and they announced that they have been renewed for a fifth 20-episode season. This has been my favourite panel so far.

After that, we decided to try to get into the Marvel AXIS panel, but there was a crazy line, so luckily we had grabbed a pass to get back into Ballroom 20, and we caught the Hannibal panel. The footage they showed really made me question why the fans are SO EXCITED for this show. It looks so dark and terrifying... If Kim is reading this, I'll need to ask her why she loves it so much. We DID get a free supplementary soundtrack out of it, which is kind of cool. We also got a free bestiary for Teen Wolf in the previous panel, so that was really the start of our "free stuff" collecting this year. 

I really didn't actually pay much attention to the Hannibal panel, I was busy reading online about what was being discussed in the Marvel AXIS panel that we didn't get into. I will admit, I got a bit distracted by Raul Eaparza on the stage. He was pretty darn handsome. And I was paying attention when they announced they were doing a signing at the Funko booth, which is a terrible idea. That place is crowded and insane already.

Finally, we watched the Penny Dreadful panel, which was pretty interesting. I've never seen the show, but now I'm pretty intrigued by it. It looks like something of enjoy. But about 20 minutes in I was starting to get really sore sitting in those chairs so long, and I was starving, so I was really happy when it came to an end and we got out of there. We headed to the Rockin' Baja Lobster Coastal Cantina to grab some food and a drink, and then made our way back to the hotel.

It was an awesome day! So many great panels, some great collectables, and a lot of laughs. It really felt like Comic-Con again, and I really remembered why it is I love coming to this convention every year. And it's continued to be pretty awesome, so stay tuned! And follow our Twitter, @sigmaflight for more updates!

SDCC 2014 - Preview Night

So! I'm trying to keep up with this. I'm a little late because by the time we got back to the hotel last night, we were exhausted. And also kind of bummed out. But I'll get to that.

So Wednesday is a little bit more of a chill, exploring kind of day, because Preview Night doesn't start until 6pm. So we really had no rush to get up and about, we could take our time with getting showered and eating breakfast. But around 10:30am, Andrea and I headed off to the nearby Fashion Valley Mall to get our "shopping day" started. I think we both only actually bought anything at JC Penney, 'cause they have awesome prices (I swear I'm not being paid for advertising). We checked out the Lego Store and a few other places, but that was about it.

After shopping was done, it was time to head to the Convention Center. This is where we get a little boring. We got there easy, got in fast, grabbed our badges in no time, and then sat and waiting in line for THREE. HOURS. so we could get into the exhibit hall early and get to the Funko booth. Funko has all kinds of awesome exclusives for SDCC (google Funko Pop! SDCC exclusives and you'll know what I'm talking about). We dedicated our Preview Night entirely to this cause.

So when we were finally let in, it was such a disappointment that we couldn't even get in line for the booth. Ten minutes before the doors opened, a bunch of exhibitors crowded the line and it was capped off before anyone was let into the hall. And worse, the guy in charge of letting people into the line was awful. He would only let people in randomly, without any system or tips on how he would choose. He was just very unfriendly and unhelpful.

So after about an hour, hour and a half of making passes by the booth and getting rejected, but seeing him let other people in, we gave up and headed elsewhere. We found a few other booths selling the regular non-exclusive Pop! figures and both managed to find some we liked. We kind of gave up at that point and headed out of the Convention Center to meet up with Natalie for dinner.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, ate the rest of our cheesecakes from the night before, and headed to bed. We were feeling pretty defeated, and sort of pessimistic about things at that point. But don't worry! Thursday is going MUCH better, so don't worry, things will cheer up soon! I promise!

And I will say, our shopping time was awesome. We had a great time. And our three hours in line at the convention center helped me get a lot of reading done on The Clockwork Princess, and Andrea read lots of comics. So there were some good points. But yeah, I'm gonna end this here. Look forward to my Thursday post, 'cause it's gonna be AWESOME.

SDCC 2014 - Travel Day

Hello from San Diego! That's right: it's Comic-Con time again! So I'm ACTUALLY going to make an effort to keep my blog up for this! But don't get too excited. Today was just the "travel day" so it's not nearly as exciting as the rest of the trip will be (and hopefully I will keep up with this so you'll know the excitement, too).

I'm actually going to start with yesterday. I decided to take the full week off work, meaning I had a whole extra day off just to prepare. It was great! I made myself a list of things I needed to do, and managed to check them all off one by one as the day went on. I even managed to remember my US cash this year so there was no late night panic running around trying to find an ATM. The plan was to go to bed early, and I was all packed early enough, but I was still awake until about midnight.

So then 5am rolled around and it was time to get up. Again, everything went well in the morning! Rob and I were on the road by 6am, traffic wasn't bad as we made our way to pick up Andrea for 6:25, and we got Rob's work stuff done and headed for the border. And while the trip itself went fine, that's when Andrea and I started to have some technical issues.

As soon as we got into the good ol' US of A, we switched our SIM cards over to use Roam Mobility, 'cause they are awesome and cheap and why wouldn't you? So Andrea's phone worked fine, but mine decided to give me trouble. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work, and when I tried to call, it was a long wait on hold, so I just left it until we made it to Seattle 'cause my battery was dying trying to deal with the issue. Once we made it to the airport, there was a crazy line for check in, and then a crazy line for security, but both went super fast, and we had the easiest time getting through security. Like, way easier than ever before. So we found a spot to sit and plug in my phone, and I called Roam, and after about five minutes on hold, the guy saw that my plan hadn't started when it should have, he reset the start time for ten minutes from then, and then I waited and it worked fine! Hurrah!

But then, Andrea began to have issues with her phone, too. But worse. The power button on the top of her iPhone was being all wonky making her phone refuse to sleep, and then refuse to wake up, and then try to turn itself off, and then not want to turn on, and all kinds of weirdness. But there wasn't anything we could do about it at the moment, so we decided to go to the Apple Store S soon as we got to San Diego.

The flight itself was great. We took Southwest Airlines, and it was pretty awesome, especially considering its a discount airline (our tickets were so cheap!). We made it to San Diego on time, not ten hours late like last year, and it was great! We grabbed our bags, hopped in a cab, and met our roomie for the week, Natalie, at the hotel, and got situated. Andrea thought ahead and backed up her phone to her computer, and then the three of us headed to nearby Fashion Valley Mall.

Turns out, no easy fix to Andrea's phone problem, so the guy at the Apple Store exchanged it for a new one, and actually, problem solved pretty easily. And with the backup, she's back up and running! We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and took our cheesecake to go, and have been chilling at the hotel ever since.

So we've had a couple of crises, but we've overcome them, and we're having a lot of fun! And I haven't even mentioned the best part! Andrea and I have teamed up to create Sigma Flight, our new joint venture in nerdiness, so follow us on twitter @sigmaflight for more updates and pictures during our Comic-Con adventures! And this post is way longer than it needed to be, but I'm just so tired that I kind of rambled on forever... Sorryyyy... I'll try to be better at this for the rest of the week. So stayed tuned for our Preview Night adventures tomorrow!

SDCC Is Right Around The Corner...

So. San Diego Comic-Con 2014 is right around the corner, and for the fourth year in a row, my excitement is building exponentially as it gets closer! For the last couple weeks Comic-Con's Toucan Blog has been been doing a "Tip of the Day" post every day on all of the things not to be missed at Comic-Con, and that gave me the idea to do a post about what I can't wait for this year.

The first thing I'm excited for doesn't actually have anything to do with Comic-Con itself, but it's one of my favourite things about visiting San Diego. The food! After a long day of exploring the convention centre, there's nothing like grabbing a drink and some delicious food. And my favourite place to do that is a great place in the Gaslamp Quarter that Andrea and I found our first year, La Puerta! I've talked about it before, but it's worth mentioning again. They have fantastic guacamole, and between 3 and 7pm every day, it's Happy Hour! Meaning cheap delicious drinks and food. I can't wait to go back there, and find some great new places to eat!

The next awesome thing I'm excited for is the exhibit hall! The whole place is a madhouse full of awesome exciting things, but crowded with thousands and thousands of people. In particular, I'm looking forward to seeing what's new at the Marvel booth. In 2011 it was decked out for the Avengers, 2012 it was Iron Man 3, and last year they had a SHIELD setup featuring all kinds of cool Marvel Studios props from all of the different movies. With a lot of big Marvel projects on the way, there's sure to be something cool. And there's sure to be tons of other awesome booths to check out, too! All of the comic book companies, TV companies, movie companies, toy companies, and video game companies. Plus all of the smaller booths for webcomics creators and various other awesome things.

I'm also really looking forward to all of the awesome panels! Andrea and I have already booked ourselves for Thursday July 24th at 3:30pm to be in Ballroom 20 for... TEEN WOLF! We've become somewhat obsessed with the show, and we both can't wait to see the ridiculousness of the cast. That and the promise of sneak peaks into what's coming. We've also decided to focus all of our former Doctor Who energy onto getting into the Marvel Studios panel. And I'd love to get into anything else Marvel related, as usual. I'm also hoping to see anything Nerdist or Geek & Sundry to get my Chris Hardwick and Felicia Day fixes, and any good movie panels would be great to see as well.

Besides the exhibition hall and the panels, there's also all of the awesome costumes to see. The cosplayers tend to do a pretty fantastic job, so it's a lot of fun spotting the great ones and getting pictures of/with them. There's also the hunt for free stuff and convention exclusives. I know both Andrea and I have seen tons of awesome stuff we want from the Funko booth, so we need to hit that, and there's bound to be plenty of other things for us to spend our money on. There's also the Nintendo Lounge next door to the convention centre, and all of the cool stuff that gets set up outside and nearby. I'm really excited to experience all of the fun surrounding Comic-Con.

And there's still our shopping day before SDCC begins! I can't wait to head over to Fashion Valley Mall near our hotel and see what we can find there. It's a really nice outdoor mall that just feels like San Diego to me. It's become tradition to spend a few hours our first day checking out all of the stores in there. The Lego Store, the Nike Store, the Apple Store, JC Penny, Old Navy, and all of the other stores. I don't even remember them all at this point. There's also the Cheesecake Factory which will need to be visited, and our annual tradition of seeing a movie at the AMC Fashion Valley Cinemas. I'm not sure what we'll see this year, but I'm sure it'll be something fun and scifi-related.

So there we have it! A rundown on some of the awesome stuff I can't wait for! I know I don't have a great track record with keeping up with this blog during Comic-Con, but I'm going to try to update it during the trip. And Andrea and I have some fun ideas for this year that we'll hopefully manage to put into action, so stay tuned for that! I'm not sure if I'll post again before the trip, but if anything exciting happens, it'll show up here at some point!

I Love Long Weekends

Last I blogged, I mentioned that I'd have another post coming within about a week. At the time, I must have had something in mind... But I forgot what it was and haven't had anything interesting to talk about. Until now! It was Family Day here in BC, and that meant a long weekend, and an extra day of fun.

Friday night, as is often the case, meant a trip to one of my favourite places in Vancouver, La Fontana Caffe, for Nerd HQ! Hanging with Andrea and the nerds is always a good time, and this weekend was a particularly calm version of the usual happenings. BUT! I was playing Pokémon Y, and I finally managed to complete the National Pokédex! I haven't finished the Pokédex since Pokémon Diamond, so it was quite the feat. 718 pokémon to collect and train is not an easy thing to do.

Now, the biggest highlight of the weekend was Saturday morning. For months, Andrea and I have been watching our emails, twitter feeds, and checking in on the Comic-Con website waiting for news of SDCC 2014 preregistration. And finally, last week, the announcement was made! So Saturday morning, Andrea and I got on our computers, signed into the new and improved EPIC waiting room, and waited for 9am to roll around.

In previous years, the race to get badges was all about hitting the button at the exact right time and hoping you make it into the virtual line. This year, they came up with the idea that you sign into a virtual waiting room anytime up to two hours before sales begin, and when the time comes, everyone in the waiting room gets randomly sorted into line to get their badges. It was interesting watchingb the little yellow info bar updating with news and tips. "It is VERY important that you do not refresh your browser when sorting has begun." But when sorting did happen and they began letting people in, I realized that they didn't tell you where in line you were. In previous years you would see what number in line you were, and it would update every two minutes to let you know how much closer to the front of the line you were. But this year they left it a complete mystery. I was just starting to worry that I'd be sitting there all morning just wondering, but then...

I GOT IN! At first I was confused. I thought I was just moved to the actual waiting room instead of the sorting room. But it said to put in my member ID and last name. So I excitedly texted Andrea to tell her, "I GOT IN!!!!" and went to work frantically putting in our info. Somehow I lucked out and got in SO FAST so I was able to secure both Andrea and I our four day plus preview night badges once again! We're set for our fourth round at San Diego Comic-Con and we couldn't be happier!

So that excitement has been carrying through this whole weekend, so the many times she and I have talked and/or seen eac other has erupted into excitement yet again. We also had brunch with our friends Anne and Peter, which was a pretty great time. And we were planning on seeing The Lego Movie today, but then the realization that today is Family Day meant that that idea should have been planned a little further ahead: tickets were sold out.

But we did get to hang out and watch Teen Wolf tonight! I gotta say, Teen Wolf is one of my new favourite shows. I started watching it a few weeks ago and have been hooked ever since. It's got all kinda of awesome going for it. Supernatural monsters and meyhem. Comedy, teen drama, action. And lots of very attractive guys who have a problem with keeping their shirts on. What's not to love? And the show just keeps getting more and more intense! Andrea and I were hanging out on her couch drinking tea and freaking out over everything that's going on. I can't even.

Plus! I finally finished reading The House of Hades yesterday! I started that book in October. Ridiculous. But this weekend I finally picked it up and read the second half in two days. I seriously don't know why it took so long. It was a fantastic book, and I really enjoyed it. I guess I just haven't felt much like reading for a while. I hope that's fixed now.

Anyway, those were some of the highlights of the weekend. Comic-Con. Pokémon. Teen Wolf. Heroes of Olympus. Friends. Nerds. Plus all the regular life stuff in between. Now back to the real world tomorrow.

Long Overdue, And Pre-SDCC

Okay. I know this is long overdue. I'm sorry guys! It's been a busy few weeks! Sorta. But sitting in the airport waiting for our now-delayed flight is as good a time as any to catch up!

So, what's been going on? Well, I moved. Away from my little hometown of PG to the big city of Vancouver. What an adventure that's been! Also: an emotional roller coaster. The week before the move was nuts. Too many teary-eyed goodbyes. Lots of fun. Rob came up to help the move go smoothly. And also to drive the U-haul for me. AND to meet everyone before he steals me away. It was a great week and a terrible week all at once. It's great to be on this new adventure, but it's really hard leaving everyone back home.

The drive down was scorching hot. Rob and I had coffee with my mom on the Sunday morning and then hopped into the truck and hit the road. We left early and the heat was already up there. It got as hot as 36 degrees through the canyon and it was above 30 the whole way. It was beautiful and such a great drive. It was kind of surreal, driving through there for the first time in a few years, this time with Rob taking me to my new home. I don't really know how to describe how it felt.

Unloading and unpacking went pretty smoothly. And my first week was pretty fun. Spent a couple of nice evenings getting drunk in the back yard. Had a couple of interviews and found myself employed my very first week. That was a huge sigh of relief. And I don't start until after my trip! So it's been like an odd long vacation. That's actually exactly how it's felt so far since I've moved. Like I'm on some sort of weird long vacation. It's finally starting to sink in that I live there, but now I'm actually going on vacation.

It is that most wondrous time of year again. No, not Christmas. Comic-Con! I feel like I've used that joke before... Oh well. I'm going with it. Anyway! The airport and delayed flight I mentioned before are the start to our Comic-Con trip. Andrea and I are still sitting in YVR airport. We can see our plane out there. But apparently there's another hour to go.

In other news, we are SUPER EXCITED!! And also really tired due to lack of sleep. I think I slept 2-3 hours last night? It was pretty dumb. Anyway. I can't think of anything else to say right now. Stay tuned for updates throughout Comic-Con!

Ready To Nerd Out

So, Andrea and I will be on our way to San Diego in a little over a month for our third annual nerdy adventure! 36 days from now we will be headed to Comic-Con once again, and I'm getting pretty excited about it!

We've done SDCC twice now, and you might think the novelty would've worn off by now, but I can't wait to get there again. Pretty soon the panel schedule will be released and we can start planning exactly who and what we wanna see, and figure out how many insane line-ups we'll be waiting in. I love all the exclusive clips and special announcements and the excitement of the crowds.

I've taken a step to improve communication while I'm there. I found a great company operating out of Vancouver called Roam Mobility. As the name of their company implies, they are a company that specializes in all of your cell phone roaming needs. Check them out! They have great plans for use while traveling in the USA. For about $28, I will have unlimited calling and texting in the US and back to Canada, plus 700 MB of data, for a week. It was a huge pain not having use of my phone last year, so I'm hoping this will be the solution I'm looking for!

Otherwise, I think we are pretty prepared for the trip. We just booked our flights. Hotel has been booked for a long time. We both managed to get our 4-day plus preview night badges. AND we bought our tickets to see the Nerdist Podcast again. I've got my USD savings account just sitting there full of money to spend. I just need to actually go!

In other news, today marks the beginning of WWDC AND E3, and I wish I was an Apple developer and/or in the gaming industry so I could be at one of them. I'm a very excited nerd right now. Anyway, this thing is already late enough and I should probably get to work, so have a wonderful week!

Flaming Bear Powers?

This week was a really great week for comics. After a somewhat disappointing week last week, it was pretty exciting that I had seven new issues and I enjoyed nearly all of them. So just for fun, I'm gonna give you a quick recap of them all. First up we had...

Ultimate Comics: X-Men #23
This is one title I've been struggling with a bit lately. It's become more of a political book and less about the X-Men. I understand that they've gone a new direction with the Ultimate Marvel line, but it's just been somewhat boring for a while now. This issue was a little different. It was sort of a background story with a bit of recap. Nothing terribly exciting happened, but it seemed like it might be setting something else up. I'm hoping this title gets some action going on soon, or I might have to drop it. Next up, we have...

Astonishing X-Men #59
This is another title I'm starting to struggle with a bit. On the one hand, I love the characters. Wolverine, Northstar, Gambit, Karma, Iceman, and Cecelia Reyes are all very good characters. But for some reason I'm just not caring very much. I think part of my problem that the relationship of Northstar and his new husband Kyle is so much the focus that it seems like all we're ever hearing about is their whiny problems. I'm all for relationships in comics, and the fact that it's a gay couple should be cool considering I'm gay myself, but enough is enough. I want some astonishing x-heroics, not astonishingly boring x-drama. Either Kyle is okay with being married to a super hero, or he's not and they can break up. Get it over with. Anyway... Now on to...

Uncanny Avengers #4
Now things start to get better. This was the first new Marvel NOW! title to come out after AvX, but it's also been the slowest one. And by that I mean release-wise, not pace-wise. It seems to keep getting delayed. But it's really good so far! The first story arc just wrapped up, and we've seen the Red Skull become an even bigger threat than he ever was before. A new team of Avengers made up of classics as well as X-Men has formed, and they've set things up to make this a pretty exciting book. The writing is good, the art is good, and the final page was a very big WTF moment that I can't wait to see play out. From there, we move on to...

Young Avengers #2
The end of the first issue was a bit of a shocker, and seeing things play out from there has been really fun. This book worried me a bit at first 'cause it's just a little bit hipster, but this issue really turned that around. The art is great, and I can't wait to see where this story is going. And they way artist and writer are working together on this is creating a really fantastic book. This is a shining example of a gay couple in a super hero book, as well. Wiccan and Hulkling make things effortless. It's not a big deal that they are a couple, it's just how it is. The story doesn't have to keep referencing it to remind people like a certain other comic I mentioned earlier. It's only two issues in and I really look forward to this one continuing on. Speaking of continuing on...

Avengers Arena #5
I really love this book. I think I've brought it up a couple times in this blog already. It's Avengers Academy meets the Hunger Games. And it's just so good! Every issue is full of those WTF moments that keep you reading on, and the characters are so interesting. Every issue picks a character to focus on, and it fluctuates between the present events in Arcade's new Murder World, and flashbacks of their lives prior to being captured. Much like Lost. And no one died this issue! That's my only problem with this is that the characters are all very cool, but they're probably going to die before the story is done. Not cool. So then...

Uncanny X-Force #2
I love Betsy Braddock. I'm not sure why. Something about a sexy purple haired psychic ninja just does it for me. And this is really her book. Storm, Puck, Fantomex and Cluster, Spiral and the new mutant girl, Ginny. And the reintroduction of Bishop with crazy flaming bear powers. I'm really not sure what's going on with this book yet, but it's fun to read so far, and I can't wait for the next issue. Finally...

Uncanny X-Men #2
I saved the best for last. I'm loving this book. From the amazing art by Chris Bachalo, to the great writing by Brian Michael Bendis, this book is a lot of fun. We've got Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, and Magneto, all dealing with broken mutant powers and being on the wrong side of the law. They've recruited some of the new mutants resulting from the end of AvX, and they're trying to start the mutant revolution. If you haven't already picked this one up, I recommend it.

So that was my comic book haul for this week. I may not have a future in comic book reviewing, but it was pretty fun talking about them anyway.

It's funny, anything comic-book or sci fi related reminds me of Comic-Con lately, and how extremely excited I am for that this year. Andrea has to put up with random text messages from me being all "I'M SO EXCITED!" But luckily she is as well so it's not so weird. Anyway! Happy Saturday! May all your weekend plans be merry!

This Went a Very Different Direction Than Intended...

So, this week I was gonna blog about the new comics I picked up on Wednesday, but when I tried to do that, I realized I barely remember reading them. That either means they weren't all that exciting, or I was too tired to really take it in when I read them in bed that night.

So, what else can I blog about? I have been watching Game of Thrones finally. I started a few weeks ago. I finally signed up for HBO and I've been recording the second season as it aires, and I managed to find the first season online. I'm only two episodes in to season two right now, but it's very good.

What I've learned so far: the Starks are fairly naive which gets them in trouble, the Lannisters are pretty awful, and someone really needs to kill Joffrey, and there's a lot of cool mythology that needs to be explored. White walkers? Dragons? The weird stuff going on with Bran? I'm pretty excited to continue on with it and see what happens.

While on the subject of good TV, I have also signed up for AMC, which means I can finally watch new episodes of the Walking Dead! Sadly, though, I had set up the first eight episodes of season three to record when they had the marathon the other day leading up to the ninth episode, but my PVR decided to die that weekend while I was in Vancouver, so none of it recorded. Which means finding it online. Which isn't difficult, just annoying when I could be watching it in HD on my TV.

In other news, last weekend when Comic-Con badges went on sale, I had way better luck than I thought possible! I was standing there at work waiting for the link to go live on the badge sales website at 9am, which also happens to be when the bank opens. Convenient right? Luckily, it wasn't busy, so when the link went live, I clicked it both on my work computer and on my phone. And then sat there and waited. It was about 5 minutes of loading before I got a weird error message. So I refreshed, which you're not supposed to do. No luck still. So I clicked on the address bar and hit enter, and it started loading again. All wasn't lost! And finally when I got into the waiting room, I was number 147 in line! Apparently I was lucky, 'cause at the same time my phone popped up with me sitting 6489th or so in line.

Two minutes later, the waiting room let me through and I was on my way! I managed to secure 4-Day with Preview Night badges for myself AND Andrea! So we are on our way to Comic-Con and getting the full experience once again! I really can't wait to start planning our trip! Andrea and I were talking about last year and our odd theme of accidentally stalking Chris Hardwick the whole trip, and how we're curious what this year's theme will be. Hopefully something fun and exciting again!

The other thing this has made me think about is that I really need to eat my ass in gear saving money! I still owe money from last year's trip, plus my oddly expensive summer, so it's time to really start sticking to a strict budget so I can afford flights and whatnot. I already have US cash saved for spending money, but the other expenses need to be prepared for.

I am really excited right now! And it's still five months away! That's not all that far away though... Oh boy. Anyway! Time to go to work! Have a great weekend!

I Have a Dilemma

So, as the title implies, I have a dilemma. It has to do with my summer vacation plans next year. There are several things I really want to do next summer, but as it turns out, three if those things are on the same weekend. So what's a nerd to do?

The first, and probably most important, would be San Diego Comic-Con. Next year it's being held July 18th to 21st. It's later in the month than it was this year, but lines up more with the previous year. Clearly I have to go to Comic-Con again. It's been the best part of my year two years running!

Second, although the one of least consequence, would be San Diego Pride, which happens to be that same weekend. Which is either really convenient or really inconvenient. I was hoping they'd be a week apart again so I could take an extra week in SD to take that in. If it's the same weekend, I don't need to use any extra time off, but it means I would have to skip out on part of Comic-Con to see the Pride stuff. Hrmmm...

Third, and of more consequence, is Tough Mudder. I've decided I'm doing it next year. But the one I wanted to do in Calgary is that same weekend! I was getting all excited for it, but looks like I can't do that one... But all is not lost! There is another one in Vancouver/Whistler in August. So I can still do it, I just figured Calgary might be more fun 'cause I haven't been there in something like 7 years.

So, by getting this all out, I've pretty much made my decision. Comic-Con wins out with slight Pride interruptions, and Tough Mudder a month later. Of course, that is all depending on whether or not I get my badge for Comic-Con next year. Gotta be on top of that ball for sure. Also, I've gotta amp up my training for Tough Mudder. Running partners anyone?

The Last Day

Soooo day 6 of the trip, and the fourth and final day of Comic-Con was quite the day indeed! For whatever dumb reason, I had been up until midnight the night before, and as it was the final day of SDCC, we were up at 4am. Yes, you read that right. FOUR. A. M.

We had a good excuse though. Doctor Who. Sunday is the day that always brings the Doctor Who panel to the fans, and being fans, we needed to be there. As we were walking up, the line didn't look so bad. Buuut it was just 'cause it was dark. The line was huge. At that hour of the morning, all I could think to say was "so much hate!"

It actually wasn't all that bad, there were so many people spread out with sleeping bags and stuff that they took up way more room than usual. So we found our way to the end of the line, and hung out for a little while.

At 6:30, Andrea and I decided we needed coffee, so we left our bags with Neil in the line, took an order from one of our line friends we'd just met, and headed to the closest Starbucks. Which had another gigantic line. This line was the slowest moving Starbucks line I have ever seen. At one point, I ducked out of that line to go use the nearby washroom, which prior to me getting there had had a line. So I left one line to get in another line after already having left another line. Weird.

Anyway, AN HOUR AND A HALF later we got our coffees, and while we'd been waiting the Hall H line had begun compressing, so we went and found Neil and our line friends, gave out coffees, and continued on through the line tent setup. Once compressed, the line was actually not bad at all, and we could tell that we'd have no problem getting into the hall.

We whiled away another hour and a half chatting with our new line friends about the convention, reading our various books, and Neil and I played with our Nintendo 3DSs. Seriously, street pass is a lot of fun at conventions like these. You pretty much take ten steps and you've found another 10 street pass tags.

At 9:30am, they finally started letting people into the hall. And by 10, we were walking in and getting our awesome Fringe hats (like the observers wear in the show). We found our seats, and the show began! The cast were awesome. There was crying and lots of laughing. And of course plenty of inadvertant innuendo. The show looks like it'll be going into a great final season.

Once that one came to an end, the Supernatural panel began. I don't watch Supernatural, but I think I might need to start. It looks like it would be right up my alley. The cast and writers were fantastic, and there was much girly screaming in the crowd. They tried to figure out what the plural of the word apocalypse would be. Apocali? I don't think so. And of course, plenty of dirty mindedness.

And then, the main event: DOCTOR WHO!! Such an amazing panel. Moderating was Chris Hardwick (who we were apparently stalking with the six times we saw him over five days) and on the panel were Stephen Moffatt, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill. The panel was so great. They showed two preview clips (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship? Oh hellz yeah), and did the whole Q&A thing with the crowd, plus watching Chris nerd out up there was great. I'm SO excited for the next season!

After that, we headed through the totally insane crowd back to the exhibit hall where we found some really cool prints. I ended up picking up a Jean Grey one, while Andrea got one with Beast. So great. We headed through the hall and we were getting really frustrated with the crowd, so we headed out.

We found a restaurant that we'd been to the first day (I still don't remember what it was called) and had a late lunch. I had a great big burger which was fantastic, along with a nice big fruity drink. I think the alcohol was much needed so I didn't totally lose my cool.

After lunch, we made one last pass through the exhibition hall, grabbed a protective sleeve for our new prints, and ducked back out and over to the Nintendo Gaming Lounge at the Marriott next door. We checked out a few demos, and then headed back to the shuttle back to our hotel, and that was the end of San Diego Comic-Con 2012.

I won't lie, I'm a little bit happy that it's over. It was so busy, and so hectic, and it'll be nice to not have to fight through the crowds anymore. I had such an amazing time though! I definitely would love to do it again next year, and I'd definitely like to visit San Diego again regardless.

Separation Anxiety

Day 4 of the trip, Day 2 of Comic Con! The fun continues!

This day started way too early. I was out a little late the night before with my awesome San Diego friends Shawn and Scott, so I really didn't enjoy the fact that we had to get up early to make it into a panel. To be fair, it was supposed to be an awesome panel. A Firefly reunion? Who wouldn't love that??

So, we headed off for the day, grabbed some breakfast and waited for the bus. Aaaand just as it was coming, I remembered I hadn't taken my allergy medication. Way to go Craig. So I ran back to the room while Andrea and Neil got on the bus, and I caught the next one. Who knew this separation would be such foreshadowing...

There were actually three panels in a row that we wanted to get in on. Community was at 10, Legend of Korra was at 11:15, and the Firefly Reunion was at 12:30, so we figured getting there at 8 would be plenty of time. Turns out, not so much. Luckily, Andrea, Neil and I managed to reunite almost as soon as I got there, so it was just a matter of getting to the end of the line. That was a challenge in and of itself.

The longer we walked to find the end end of the line, the further and more hopeless things seemed to become! We walked pretty far before we found it. It wasn't nearly as bad as our walk last year to pick up our badges, but it was pretty bad. As the comic con workers came by and tried to make us lose hope and leave the line, we made friends with a few of the people in line with us, and we became a group. But I have no idea what their names are now. I'm terrible.

Anyway, this line was monstrous. And when we finally got moving, we made it all the way back up to the building! And Before Korra started even! But then it turned out to be an illusion, 'cause the line actually stretched way down the back of the building as well, something we hadn't seen before. But we still had hope. The line had to move somewhat, right?

Wrong. After four hours in line, I got fed up, lost hope that we'd ever make it in, and abandoned the line. Andrea, Neil and I made arrangements to meet up after our hopeful panels ended, and I took off for the other side of the convention centre to catch the Marvel: Ultimate Comics Universe panel. It was pretty fun, no new info really, but the Marvel panels are always pretty enjoyable.

At this point, I headed out to where we had arranged to meet, and waited for a while. Aaaand send several iMessages, tweets, and Facebook messages to find out where my companions might be. Nothing. Soooo I went and got coffee, came back, hung around for a bit longer, aaaand got into another one of the panel rooms to wait for the Marvel Cup o' Joe panel.

Finally, partway through the panel, I heard back from Andrea. It seems wifi was really not working well, so they had only gotten a couple of my attempts to communicate with them, very very late. And even then things weren't working well 'cause they didn't get my responses. So after the Cup o' Joe panel ended, I went off to search for them again, but about ten seconds out the door, Neil attacked me from behind, and we were finally reunited!

As it turned out, they didn't make it into the panel, but they did make it into the one after, Bones! Which was apparently pretty great. I wish I could have seen David Boreanes, but oh well. They had their own adventures though. Andrea lost her badge, and had to get a replacement. And they went all over the place looking for me, even tried asking my favourite artist in artist alley, Steve. It's funny 'cause I even thought about going down there too.

Anyway, after that, we decided to grab dinner at the Yard House restaurant. Andrea and I went there last year, and it was really good, so we had to take Neil. Plus we had plans right down the street. We ended up in the exact same table as we had had last year too, which was odd and kinda funny. We even had a show with dinner, the zombie walk went by the other side of the restaurant so we got to watch as they went by and traffic got completely stopped.

So after dinner, we headed down the street to the Balboa Theatre for the Nerdist podcast taping. I guess every year they do a special podcast with a crowd full of people. I dunno. I had no idea what to expect. We got in, but they didn't open the doors to the actual theatre, and the lobby was tiny, so it got all sardine can up in there for a bit. Dislike. But soon, we made it in, and waited for the show to begin.

And what a show it was! I seriously think you should go look it up right now. Nerdist Podcast from SDCC 2012. It was out of control. They had the extremely funny and very very sexy John Barrowman on the show, and he is just... I don't even know. He's just fantastic. There were discussions of pooping and thigh kisses. John grabbed several ladies' boobs. And made out with a straight guy. It was just nuts. I am going to have to go back and listen to that again. I laughed SO HARD.

And after that, there's really nothing else that could top that. We were tired from so much laughing, so we headed back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, and headed to bed. The end.

Day 3? Day 1? Who Knows?

So! Trip day 3, but the official 1st day of Comic-Con International 2012! We really didn't have much exciting planned for Thursday, but it ended up being a pretty great day anyway.

We started out venturing into the fray to try to get a BBC lanyard and some toy for Andrea's friend. Both attempts ended in failure. We were really starting to feel like it was completely futile. But we don't give up.

We decided to go check out some of the stuff I wanted to do, so we headed down to Artist Alley to meet someone I'd been talking to. So I got to meet Stephen Sadowski! His artwork was really cool to look at, and it was cool to meet him, and his husband Shane Rooks. They are actually from Vancouver so close to home!

After that, we made one more run by the BBC booth, and we were thinking it looked futile, but then we spotted the exchange of lanyards, and zipped through the crowd and got to be the first people to grab them. Success!

Mattel was another bust. But we went by another booth where I picked up a copy of Amulet signed by one of the guys who works on it. That was pretty fun.

We then got in line for the Marvel House of Ideas panel. There was some author before that, and her panel wasn't all that interesting, so I didn't pay attention. Oops. The Marvel panel didn't have a lot of new information in it, but it was a lot of fun. After that we remembered again how hungry we were, so we too off and found food at some little Mexican restaurant. And then another Marvel panel! The Next Big Thing panel also didn't have a lot of new information, but again, it was pretty fun. I love the Marvel people.

At that point, we decided to enter the fray one last time, so we headed onto the show floor. And surprise! It wasn't anywhere near as busy! We made our way to the Mattel booth, and pretty much walked right up. It was great. Andrea was finally able to get the thing for her friend. Success! Again!

We also managed to get the pirate domo figure comic-con exclusive, but couldn't get the Maleficent figure Andrea wanted. I bought a really awesome Batman, Robin, and Catwoman print from Steve, which I am really excited about.

And at that, our comic-con adventure for the day was done, so we headed on back to the hotel, at which point I took off to hang out with a couple of San Diego friends, Shawn and Scott, a really great couple I met last year when I was here. They took me for dinner at Baja Betty's, a great Mexican restaurant in Hillcrest, part of the gayborhood of San Diego. Had a great time hanging out with them, and decided I never wanna leave SD, haha.

SDCC Preview Night

Day 2! Except, it's more like day -1. Or Day 0. I dunno. Anyway! Comic-Con continued! (this is now two days behind... oops. I wrote this yesterday, so keep that in mind reading this)

So yesterday was the Preview Night for SDCC, where a select few (or many as the case may be) are allowed inside early. But not until 6pm... So we had pretty much the entire day to waste!

We had a bit of a slow start, and as a consequence, we missed the free breakfast the hotel provides. Instead, we bought breakfast, and it was fantastic. I had this omelet, and I only mention it at all because it was an EPIC omelette. It was soooo full of stuff. Almost like an egg pocket.

Anyway, that's enough of that. We bused it downtown and explored a little bit. Saw a few restaurants and building we recognized from last year. Well, Andrea and I did, Neil was a little left out of the recognition.

Anyway! We decided to make our way to the convention centre early, just because. Turns out, rather than having to wait until noon, we were able to grab our badges 3 hours early! And there was no line! It was amazing! So we grabbed those, got our free CCI bags and schedule books and such, and ventured back out to the streets.

Most of the really cool stuff was still being set up outside, but as we were walking along, some guy gave us free tickets to the Course of the Force slash The Dan Band concert thing. That was pretty fun. Chris Hardwick was hosting, which was pretty awesome for Andrea. The Dan Band, if you don't know who they are, is so hilarious. I really enjoyed that. So random concert in the middle of the day? Heck yeah!

After that was over, we explored some more, mostly in search of food. We managed to find a pretty nice place to eat, but I have no idea what it was called. Oops. The bathroom had awesome stuff written on the walls. And I had an awesome pulled pork sandwich.

After THAT, we went back to the Con and got in line to be let in for Preview Night. It was a bit of a long wait, but it wasn't too bad! Finally made it in for 6pm and spent way too much time in lines waiting to get stuff. It's nuts how busy it gets here!

I got my Doctor Who lunchbox and water bottle, and then went and bought a whole bunch of Questionable Content stuff at the TopatoCo booth. I was really excited to meet Jeph Jacques again.

After that, and many attempts to get in lines for other things (resulting in failure) we finally escaped from the convention centre, and tried to get in line for the bus. But our bus was elsewhere, apparently, but without direction to go there, so we eventually made it back to our hotel, unloaded all of our stuff, had a quick bite to eat, aaand went to sleep.

It Begins...

So! The San Diego Comic-Con 2012 adventure has begun! And thus begins my attempt to blog the whole thing. Here goes!

I guess I will start with Monday. Monday wasn't actually all that exciting. It involved a short work day, a quick flight to Vancouver, a long wait for luggage, some Game of Thrones, "Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All," some very awesome hosts letting us stay the night, and of course, the long awaited reunion with the wonderful Andrea!

Tuesday was a very early start. 5am early. Yeah. Ridonk. We got up, got ready, and hit transit for 6am. I didn't realize how much is involved in international travel. Last year we took a shuttle over the border and it seemed a lot less complicated. This year we took a direct flight out of Vancouver, and we got to practice our queuing quite a bit. Baggage drop, security, customs, all in a row. But it was all pretty easy to go through. And one three-hour flight later, we were in beautiful San Diego!

So, we made it to our hotel really early. I guess check-in time is 4pm. We were here at noon. So we stored our luggage and took off on an adventure to find the mall nearby. And as luck would have it, the one and only Nike store in San Diego just happened to be in said mall. If you've been reading lately, you know I've been getting more and more into fitness. The other day I realized that I need new running shoes, and I found the ones I wanted, but they were only available in the States. Well, luck shone down on me haha. I found the shoes I want (Nike LunarGlide+), plus I got the Nike+ FuelBand I wanted (which is only available in Nike Stores in the States). So my first big purchase of the trip was something athletic and not geeky. I think I might be failing at this nerd trip thing.

Or not. After a little more shopping and some food, we stopped in at a Lego store! I've never been to one so it was pretty exciting stuff for me. I wanted to leave with the whole store, but I resisted buying anything. And then we went to see Amazing Spider-Man! It was such a good movie. Andrew Garfield makes a much better Peter Parker/Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire ever did. Admittedly, the movie seems a little slow getting into things 'cause it has to reestablish the whole origin story, but I still really enjoyed it.

After that it was a pretty uneventful evening. We got back to our hotel, checked into our room, and just relaxed for a while. Went for dinner at the little burger place attached to our hotel, and then went for a walk down the road a bit before heading back and crashing in our room again. So the boring part of the trip is over. We've got some time to waste this morning, but this afternoon we'll go pick up our badges for Comic Con and we get to do the Preview Night thing, so that should be fun. I'll continue my SDCC 2012 blogging experience tonight! Or maybe tomorrow morning...

The Countdown is On!

Once again, excitement is building as the most joyous event of the year approaches. No, not Christmas, silly! That's 6 months away! It could be considered Christmas in July though... Anyway, I'm straying from the point. San Diego Comic Con!

It fast approaches! It officially starts July 12th, however, my fellow convention goers and I have passes for the 4 days plus preview night, so our comicon adventures will begin on the 11th, and we actually arrive in San Diego on the 10th. Thus giving us time to hopefully get settled and enjoy some more of what SD has to offer.

This year I am going to make my best effort to actually keep up with my blogging while I'm gone. Trying to blog about the con afterwards last year just really didn't work out well. So we'll see how it goes. Regardless, I can't wait to get my butt outta PG for a week!

In other news, I'm finally moving into my new place this weekend after living in limbo for two months! I can't tell you how exciting this is! Finally to have my own room, my own bed, surrounded by my own stuff. It'll be pretty great!

July is my month! New place, awesome trip, and probably new job, now if only we'd get some sun it would be perfect!

SDCC 2011 Day One

So! At long last, I am posting my Comic-Con blog! I'll try to remember all of the awesome stuff that went on, but no guarantees!

First of all, I'd like to say that Andrea and I definitely underestimated how busy it would be at the convention. It was a constant problem throughout our adventures, and we'll be sure to plan for the crowds in the future. On Thursday when we arrived was the first and possibly largest miscalculation on timing that we had. We got up and ready and took the shuttle to the convention centre at around 8:30am thinking we'd be early enough to get in line for our badges and be on our way in by the time it all opened. Turns out, there were already several thousand people in line, and we had quite the wait ahead of us.

The line was crazy, it wrapped almost the entire way around the convention centre and then doubled back down the waterfront walkway a significant distance. I don't remember exactly how long it took us to get through the line, but I'm thinking it was probably a couple hours at least. The one fun thing about waiting in line was the constant stream of people heading past us toward the end of the line, many of which were dressed in awesome geeky t-shirts or a wide variety of costumes.

Once we made through the seemingly endless line, we got into the building and followed the crowd to the badge pick-up area which was part of a massive tent-like room upstairs in the convention centre. We made it through the crazy mass of people, got our badges, and got our first bunch of free stuff: a giant comic-con bag, two books, and a lanyard to hang our badges on. We, unfortunately, got the Vampire Diaries comic-con bags, but as we made it through a couple of girls asked if they could trade us for our bags. Theirs featured Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, so Andrea and I were all too eager to trade. Win-win!

The place was set up so the badge pick-up and autograph signing, as well as a large sitting area were all in this massive tent-like room which was on the upper floor and more-or less smack-dab in the middle of the convention centre. On either side of this room were all of the halls in which the different panels would be held. Almost the entire bottom floor of the enormous building was the exhibit hall where there were probably thousands of booths dedicated to everything from comic book stores, comic studios, web comics, graphic novels, to movie studios, television studios, toy companies, video game companies, and a whole artists alley. The other part of the lower level housed Hall H, the largest of the halls used for the biggest and most exciting panels.

We really had no idea where to start, so we explored the exhibit hall. It was crazy how many people were there. It was hard to wade through the crowds to see everything. We saw the Marvel booth, but there were so many people that we couldn't really stop and see it. We also saw a replica of the TARDIS sitting at a random booth, got our picture taken with Pikachu, saw some awesome Lego statues, spotted some random celebrities at the Fox booth, and just when we were about to leave the hall to check out some panels, accidentally found Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild, and got posters signed by the six of them. They were all really cool. I loved Felicia Day's comment about the posters, she pointed out that her character had big boobs and said "that's all the artist" as she covered her chest.

We had made an attempt to check out one of the panels earlier in the day but soon realized that we'd miscalculated the lines to get in once again, so we made sure we were extra early to get into the Marvel's Next Big Thing panel. There was a Batman panel before it that we ended up making it into, but I really wasn't overly impressed by it. I'm not a DC comics fan. The only part I actually enjoyed was the sexy Scottish accent from Grant Morrison.

The Marvel: Next Big Thing panel was a lot more interesting. Alex Alonso, CB Cebulski, Greg Pak, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, Daniel Way, Steve Wacker, and David Gabriel were all on stage with moderator Arune Singh. They talked up a lot of what Marvel's got coming our way over the next while, some of which excites me, some of which doesn't. There was talk about the Hulk, and an upcoming Villains for Hire book, and stuff with the FF which all was interesting but they're not really my favourite Marvel titles. What WAS exciting was all the talk about what's coming in the Ultimate line of books, which as prompted me to decide to start collecting all four titles spinning out of Ultimate Fallout. Tlhere are also some new Avengers origin stories coming down the line, and some change-ups happening with Avengers Academy which have me thinking I might just have to start picking that one up again. There wasn't much else to offer, but they did give away a free Hulk comic book which is kinda cool (except I don't really like the hulk...).

After the panel we explored the exhibit hall for a while longer and I got to see Jeph Jacques! My favourite web comic creator! Except there was a giant line. And there was a huge crowd around the Rooster Teeth booth (which Andrea really wanted to see) so we gave up and headed to Hall H to check out another panel that seemed interesting. On our journeys through the convention centre Andrea kept seeing celebrities that I somehow managed to miss. While waiting for the Marvel panel earlier she spotted Jon Heder, but I missed him. I did see the guy who played Pedro, though. And then while wlking through the Exhibit Hall she spotted Bruce Campbell, but I totally missed him. We walked RIGHT BY him.

Te end of our day was spent in Hall H watching a panel featuring a couple of famous directors, John Favreau and Guillermo Del Toro. The one big thing I got out of it? Guillermo swears like a sailor. And there was some awesome exclusive footage from Cowboys & Aliens. It was pretty interesting, although probably moreso to Andrea than to me.

After the panel was over, the convention was closed for the day so we headed back to the hotel to relax after a crazy day. It's actually crazy how tired we were that night. Comic-Con is tiring!


Disclaimer: I am a terrible photographer so please excuse the awful quality and/or content of the included photos.

SDCC: The Journey

So, I bring this update to you LIVE from the Seattle Airport! The always amazing Andrea and I have spent all of today using various methods of transport to get us to San Diego Comic-Con 2011! Our feet, a skytrain, a shuttle bus, and an airplane have all gotten us this far, and soon we will be boarding another plane that will take us the final leg of the way.

I can't tell you how excited I am right now! In only a few more hours we'll make it to San Diego, and tomorrow the main event begins! It's funny how nervous I've been too. Going through customs at the border for whatever reason had me feeling uneasy, but I was just being silly. The people were really nice and we were on our way really quick. And I was a little nervous in the Bellingham Airport too, but the people were really nice and even asked us questions about our comic fandom, and mentioned there were a lot of Comic-Con goers passing through!

Anyways, this is already longer than I meant it to be, I just wanted to make a quick post about Comic-Con, and that is done, so off I go to get ready for the last leg of the trip there!