Of Checking Out of Life, and Short SDCC Recap
I've been back from SDCC for a week, but I've been existing in a kind of limbo where I haven't acknowledged that I now must continue with my regular life until today. When we returned to Denver last Monday, I did a lot of laundry and TV watching for the first two days (trying to catch up on the zillion shows I DVR), and then my partner's sister came to visit for about four and a half days, so I haven't really had time for much else. Now I have about a week and a half until my parent's come to visit, and then my partner's parents visit, arriving just a day after my parent's leave. And then it's pretty much September. So, August will be a busy month and I have less time for LiveJournal, so I might not get to the meat of my SDCC recaps or any book reviews for a little while, yet. (Shoot, I'm so behind on book reviews at this point, I may just call it a wash and move on.)
Here's the short version, and rest assured, I will write up more of my impressions of the convention and the panels we attended. Overall, the lines were enormous, the exhibit hall was a stampeding horde of people and was very difficult to navigate, but everything we did was awesomely worth it. We did most of the major TV ones I wanted -- Psych, Chuck, White Collar, Joss Whedon's intimate tete-a-tete with hundreds of his fans, Rifftrax Live, Burn Notice, The Guild -- though I missed some, too (like Supernatural and Eureka and Warehouse 13 and Leverage). Sometimes I sat in on panels I didn't particularly care about to make sure I was in the right room in time for the one I did want to see, but they usually turned out to be pretty neat, too (one on abusing science in science fiction shows was pretty interesting). I managed to go to Thief Con and meet Megan Whalen Turner, but I had to leave after only an hour to meet my partner, so I know I missed some of the super cool discussions everyone had going. I got some cool swag (some free, some not) -- I got my Scott Pilgrim #6 signed by Bryan Lee O'Malley and I got a Penny Arcade poster signed by Tycho and Gabe; I got some free Team Sackboy shirts from Playstation (which happened kind of last minute and was super exciting) and some free Scott Pilgrim the movie T-shirts, and a bunch of other stuff. I got to play with the Playstation Move and see how it worked and buy stuff from web comics I enjoy, like Hijinks Ensue and Dinosaur comics. I avoided all of the movie events in Hall H because the lines were hellish (Hall H seats 6,500 people and there were probably twice that in line at any one time) and I figured, I could read about any news or surprise announcements online. I am still sorry I missed the Scott Pilgrim one, but I just had too many other things I wanted to do than stand in line all day for one thing.
We didn't do much outside the Convention Center but sleep and try to recuperate for the next long day, but the weather was great, and the B&B we stayed in was decent, and we managed to save some money by bringing a lot of snacks to eat while waiting in line over lunchtime. Highlights for me were definitely seeing the Psych and Chuck panels (both had awesome openings and lots of fan interaction and cool annoucements!) and getting Scott Pilgrim #6 signed and getting free Little Big Planet shirts; that alone made the experience worthwhile.
Here's the short version, and rest assured, I will write up more of my impressions of the convention and the panels we attended. Overall, the lines were enormous, the exhibit hall was a stampeding horde of people and was very difficult to navigate, but everything we did was awesomely worth it. We did most of the major TV ones I wanted -- Psych, Chuck, White Collar, Joss Whedon's intimate tete-a-tete with hundreds of his fans, Rifftrax Live, Burn Notice, The Guild -- though I missed some, too (like Supernatural and Eureka and Warehouse 13 and Leverage). Sometimes I sat in on panels I didn't particularly care about to make sure I was in the right room in time for the one I did want to see, but they usually turned out to be pretty neat, too (one on abusing science in science fiction shows was pretty interesting). I managed to go to Thief Con and meet Megan Whalen Turner, but I had to leave after only an hour to meet my partner, so I know I missed some of the super cool discussions everyone had going. I got some cool swag (some free, some not) -- I got my Scott Pilgrim #6 signed by Bryan Lee O'Malley and I got a Penny Arcade poster signed by Tycho and Gabe; I got some free Team Sackboy shirts from Playstation (which happened kind of last minute and was super exciting) and some free Scott Pilgrim the movie T-shirts, and a bunch of other stuff. I got to play with the Playstation Move and see how it worked and buy stuff from web comics I enjoy, like Hijinks Ensue and Dinosaur comics. I avoided all of the movie events in Hall H because the lines were hellish (Hall H seats 6,500 people and there were probably twice that in line at any one time) and I figured, I could read about any news or surprise announcements online. I am still sorry I missed the Scott Pilgrim one, but I just had too many other things I wanted to do than stand in line all day for one thing.
We didn't do much outside the Convention Center but sleep and try to recuperate for the next long day, but the weather was great, and the B&B we stayed in was decent, and we managed to save some money by bringing a lot of snacks to eat while waiting in line over lunchtime. Highlights for me were definitely seeing the Psych and Chuck panels (both had awesome openings and lots of fan interaction and cool annoucements!) and getting Scott Pilgrim #6 signed and getting free Little Big Planet shirts; that alone made the experience worthwhile.