Well, it was fun while it lasted. In fact, it was like a month of holidays, almost. I think almost every weekend this month had some kind of festivities. So, were July a roller coaster, I’d be giggling and begging to go again.
After a nap, of course.
If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all thinking, damages his personality and makes him a landlord to a ghost. —Lloyd Douglas
When they say "average," do they mean the mean or the median?
The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they’ve printed below.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you read part of but never finished.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strikethough those you hope to never read again, and sometimes wish you could un-read.
Via arratik
Normally at lunchtime, I just jump in the car and drive to one chain eatery or another, depending on what personal errands I also need to run that day. Other times, I run across the street to the liquor store, or down the street to the coffee shoppe, and order a sandwich to be gobbled up at my desk. But on a few occasions, I’ll walk the opposite way for a few blocks to get away from the hubbub of tourists and folks looking to get the day’s drinking off to an early start.
This part of the neighborhood is much quieter. Cars pass by less frequently. Residences creep diffidently back to the street before fleeing again at the sight of a freeway onramp down the hill, leaving behind a few junk shops and a taqueria with a sidewalk cafe. It’s nice to visit there a little bit later in the afternoon, when the lunch crowd has gone back to where they came from, and to just enjoy a burrito in peace.
Today we gathered ourselves together once more and made our way to the Convention Center. We attended the second Cartoon Voices panel, and the actors (Billy West, Katie Leigh, Cheryl Chase, Dee Baker and Chris Edgerly) gave a good panel. Their reading of the script was a bit more restrained than that of the previous day’s panel. I think this was partly because Sunday was more or less a kids’ day, and it was partly because of both the energy created by Chuck McCann, and the chemistry of the previous panel. After the panel ended, we wandered the convention floor one last time. I bought a Red Robot shirt from Dumbrella so I wouldn’t be leaving empty-handed. Then, we left.
For your viewing pleasure, the few pictures that weren’t too dark or embarrassingly blurry are in this photo set.
My overall impressions? Well, I’ll try not to be influenced by the slightly negative post that I read over at Blogography. However, I will cheerfully admit that he’s completely right about all of it. For now, let’s just set aside the issue of crowds and crowd management. The Comic-Con, this year, kind of reminds me of an MMORPG. In theory, you are having fun. However, much of your time is spent on the grind in order to get to the point in which you can do something interesting. Experienced players may know ways to bypass some of the grind, but as that knowledge spreads through the player base, everyone will have to start doing things that way or they won’t get anywhere. Eventually, the game designers become aware of this and actually cater content toward this style of play.
Yesterday, for example, both the Joe Michael Straczynski and TV Guide Presents panels had a captive audience waiting to see the Mythbusters, and the day before that, the XBOX Live Original Content panel had a captive audience waiting to see the Venture Brothers panel. Now, don’t get me wrong, the producers and writers on all of those panels were interesting people and had a lot of interesting material and ideas to share. However, one can’t help but wonder how TV Guide and Microsoft both got the panels showcasing their upcoming programming to be scheduled just before two popular panels and not, say, at the same time as those panels. Hmm. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Anyway, back to the analogy. If there’s one MMORPG that this year’s Comic-Con reminds me of, it’s City of Villains. As I’ve said in the past, aside from the new costume bits and the fact that you get to rob a bank once or twice, it’s not that different from its predecessor.
Don’t get me wrong. I had a really interesting weekend and I encourage anybody who is interested to attend at least once. I’ll probably go again next year, too, but I think that perhaps I’ll try and make things really interesting— by going in costume and attending the famous masquerade party.
This was my second full day at the San Diego Comic-Con. I joined up with my adventuring party just a wee bit late to even think of being on time to the Futurama panel, so instead we got pancakes at a nice little neighborhood restaurant I know. We then boarded the trolley, which was soon filled to capacity, and returned to the Convention Center.
As all of yesterday was spent attending panels, I planned to spend some time today on the convention floor. But first, I wanted to see the Cartoon Voices panel. I saw one year before last and it was almost worth the price of admission alone. This year, there was no almost. Gregg Berger, Alyson Packard, Phil Lamarr, Wally Wingert, Chuck McCann, and Keith Ferguson did a reading of an old Superman radio show with such fantastic delivery and brilliant ad-libs that had the audience literally in tears. There will be another Cartoon Voices panel tomorrow (although with six other actors) so I’ll return for that if nothing else.
After that, I did go to the convention center floor, which seemed to be even more crowded than ever. I bought a couple of tee shirts and met an actor from Torchwood. But soon, it was about time to go back upstairs and camp out in Room 6B. Our patience was eventually rewarded when the Mythbusters panel began. Apparently, Adam Savage had been walking around the convention floor in a Hellboy costume for most of the day. This leads me to wonder how many of those stormtroopers wandering around might actually be incognito celebrities?
After that, it was pretty much time to go home.
Today was the first full day I spent at the San Diego Comic-Con, and as I predicted, I did spend most all of it listening to actors talk. And, as I predicted, I am still pleased with this outcome.
Although we got off to a late start, my adventuring party eventually made it out the door, to a 7-11 for last-minute snacks, and then to Qualcomm Stadium, where we boarded the trolley for the Convention Center. Once there, we went immediately to the Stargate Continuum panel, and arrived in time to hear Richard Dean Anderson explain what happens when one goes to the bathroom in subzero temperatures. Hint: things freeze. We then waited through the Stargate Worlds MMORPG presentation (note to self: sign up for the beta test) to see the Stargate Atlantis panel. The Atlantis panel members were asked how working on Atlantis compared to other sci-fi shows. Robert Picardo said that Star Trek took itself far more seriously and never allowed any "winking at the fourth wall." Jewel Staite said that unlike Firefly, "this one doesn’t get canceled."
We then sat and waited for the Ghost Hunters panel, only to learn that the lead investigators wouldn’t be able to attend. Rather than canceling the panel, the Sci-Fi network brought in investigators from the spin-off, Ghost Hunters International, so the time spent waiting wasn’t totally wasted. We also saw previews of some short films that will be distributed via the XBOX Live Marketplace. The interesting thing is, the films are comedies made by well-known horror directors. But, are horror and comedy really that far separated? Most of the panelists thought not. I would agree, and point to works such as The Twilight Zone, many of whose stories are practically jokes.
The panel mayhem continued with Venture Brothers. The show’s creator revealed that a fourth season of the series was already being planned. After that, I went to see Larry Marder talk about the revivification of his Beanworld stories. Tales from the Beanworld ran for about twenty issues and was last published in the early Nineties. The company publishing the books folded, and the Beanworld went on a long hiatus, leaving many, many questions unanswered. First among my questions is, what was the horrible event that left the Beanworld in the state in which we found it? We’ll have to wait until early next year, when the first new Beanworld stories will be published.
By this point, my adventuring party was pooped and cranky, so we went home and watched Doctor Who.
I didn’t get to go to the ‘Con today, but this evening I did go to a special San Diego Symphony concert: Video Games Live. I’ve wanted to attend one of these shows ever since I found out about them. So when I found out there would be a show tonight, I knew I had to go.
The venue was quite pleasant, an outdoor stage in a park on the harbor. The symphony and choir, I thought, did well considering how unorthodox the show must have been compared to their usual performances. There was one young lady in the choir whose face appeared on the big screen during the performance of One Winged Angel. In contrast to the serious faces of the others, hers was smiling and enthusiastic, and I can only wonder whether she, too, is a fan.
The audience was treated to music from Final Fantasy, Civilization, Warcraft, Halo, Tron, Zelda and Mario. Speaking of which, the blindfolded Nintendo pianist was there, and he played a Final Fantasy medley as well as the Super Mario tunes that he became known for. The winner of a Guitar hero contest held just before the show, and the winner was invited onstage for another round, this time accompanied by the entire orchestra. He was awarded a shiny new laptop. Finally, a Castlevania tribute was played accompanied by fireworks launched from a nearby boat.
I’m happy that I went. There were a few times during the day that I almost changed my mind, and I’m glad I didn’t do that.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year…
You guessed it: the ‘Con is in town.
What happens when food enters the Uncanny Valley? It may look something like this.
Fortunately, unlike the Bride Cake, this humanoid pâtisserie was not created to be eaten, but rather as a show of cake decorating prowess which won a gold medal at ICHF’s Cake International 2006. Its construction can be witnessed here:
ERIK
