Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Great Line of Comic-Con

Got on a plane yesterday to go to Comic-Con...a convention in San Diego that is
for all things geek. Comic books, toy lines, tv shows, movies, video games, etc.
I have always known on the inside that I was a geek. However...since my first brush
with the conference and the attendees I realize I'm not much of a geek at all.

















nearby passenger



When I got my rental car the guy that was my "car ambassador" got to talking
andafter telling me which restaurants to check out he looked at my rental
agreement assaid, "Are you here for Comic-Con?". I said yes and he proceeded
to tell me that the "most interesting" people have gotten cars from them the past
couple of days. "One guy was about 6'2", overweight, in a mini-skirt and had
long purple hair"... I told him to be fearful of those people because most geeks...
if they have some type of costume lean...won't wear them out and about all the
time...but there are some geeks that view life as one big role playing game and
act as such. The midwest doesn't many of these type of geeks because they
prefer ocean air...they never see the ocean...they just like the air...

There's actually a term for this kind of person...I read about them in "Entertainment Weekly"
on the plane...they're called "LARPers"...

Definition
LARPers: noun: Live-action role players. In other words: people who dress up
as charactersthey like or have invented, and then use the world as their personal
game board.

A few other definitions:
Dr. Girlfriends: Friends/lovers/wives of the Comic-con faithful who have no
interest in the convention but attend solely to show their support.

Family Man: A dad who doesn't realize that fandom isn't genetic. So, he sets his
kids up for years of therapy by dressing him up as a baby superhero.

Went straight to the convention so I could get my badge. Wednesday night is
supposed to be a little more laid back because only people that bought a pass for
the entire conference could come that night.

The first guy I saw (let's call him Belt Buckle (as I got out of my car was about 5'2",
slighted bearded...and was hobbit-ish. As we talked about the conference (he's
come the past 9 years) I noticed that he was wearing a soda can sizes R2-D2 belt
buckle. And instead of a cell phone he had a light saber holster and what looked to
be the kid of light saber you make yourself or pay $400 at one of those collectibles
websites. While the guy was nice he did tell me that I "was screwed" because I had
come alone and no one would hold my seat at the bigger presentations.

(side note:Hollywood comes to the Con and shows movie trailers. The people behind
the recent "Iron Man" movie did this last year and got the geek fan base so excited
they told all of their normal friends and the movie did very well this summer. Do you
remember "Stealth"? Geeks were given a taste of that a few years ago and it bombed.
They told all their normal friends and it bombed in the theatres)

He pointed me to a line that snaked around the convention building and told me
that was the line to get the convention badge (which must be worn at all times...
otherwise an assortment of elves and Klingons (volunteers that get free access
to the conference...not all are elves and klingons...one guy was dressed up as a
chef) will throw you out the door.

I have never seen a line this long before. EVER. It started at the corner of the front
of the convention center and ended at the opposite side of the center...three quarters
of a mile away. That doesn't include the times it snaked back andforth in small areas.
The line was always moving because they had a staff of 250-300 processing the attendees.


















It took 15 minutes to walk to the back of the line





















First of many older bearded backpacked iphoned
ponytailed men I will see during the convention






















way back of the line. about 3/4 of a mile away from the front





















the area all of us got badges...

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Meeting notes
























Skymall

Got to spend a decent amount of time in airplanes lately and one of my
favorite things to do is look at the skymall catalog and laugh. Some of the products
seem really absurd...but then I realize someone has to know there is at
least enough of a market to recover expenses...but the two below really surprise me:
























I bought a guitar a while ago and have yet to move beyond a few chords...
other things have come up and i just haven't had the time. But at no point in
time did I say to myself "If only I could make learning easier...and accomplishable
in an hour or less".





















The above is just sad...any words I could put to it would only lessen the impact...
except that if someone has $200 to waste...just mail it to me...I'll take good care of it.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Iron Man

while cool...it surprises me there's a market for a $600 bust...



Friday, July 04, 2008

NYC part 2

Found a tranformer toy I'd never seen before:


















Got to have dinner with a college friend and I ended up having the
best chicken pad thai I've EVER had....


















(left over evidence of best pad thai EVER)

NYC is fun, crazy, and overwhelming

Have traveled a decent amount recently...one trip was to NYC...which I
hadn't been to since I was about 12. Was walking down the street and saw this motorcycle.


















It looked like lame camo until I took a closer look.























Turns out (I blurred the photo on purpose...) the camo consisted of pics of
naked women...LOTS of naked women. Part of me was impressed by the
amount of time it would take...and then the other part of me was "this bike
is parked out for everyone to see"...can you imagine the type of person that
would own a bike like this?...I'm still trying to imagine and I'd like to think I'm creative...

Got to go to this store:









Lemon Juice

No commentary on this one...I've just never seen a lemon juice packet before...

license plates















It's not easy to see...but the license has a Bengals face plate...so the
readers of this blog who aren't from the states (I don't know anyone
in Turkey...but someone knows me) the Bengals are a sad sad football
team from the mid-west.




















Not surprising...a Kentucky plate...they drink a lot down there...
because they live there...