Comic-Con 2010 preview night

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With little expectations of actually accomplishing much or seeing anyone in particular, I ventured downtown Wednesday night after work to see the hubbub that is Con (well, that seems to be the word on the street). Once at the convention center after walking a fair bit from my free parking spot in East Village, I managed to grab my pass with considerable ease to the point I was unsure if I cut in front of a huge invisible line.

Immediately, security ushered me towards the exhibit hall where I suddenly felt very small. Without direction and too impatient to look in the event guide, I started poking around looking for something I could relate to. DC and Marvel were concepts and characters I knew more like advertisements on a cereal box: colorful, frozen lifeless forms trying to sell me something and not really of interest to me. Without cable shows like Doctor Who, True Blood and Community completely passed me by. And I am NOT a collector. Anytime my husband and I receive two like objects, they are immediately separated for fear someone may see them, assume we are collectors of said object, and proceed to buy us more.

Booths rousing my curiosity ranged from the Asian pop culture magazine/toy vendor, Giant Robot…. to the creative Haunted Memories changing portraits… to the simple stick figure drawings of the Kingdom of Loathing role-playing game. As many times as I have sent my family the hilariously funny Hoops and Yoyo greeting cards, it  seemed vaguely appropriate to pose for a photo with the life-sized versions and include a link to their amusing Sarcastic Wednesday animated e-card. By the way, they are not so entertaining in real life.

Lines formed in every direction for the super fans or just the super cheap to get their limited edition items or free crap give-aways. I managed to escape with very little crap… only the gi-normous bag that I will never in a million years wear or use. I might have to give it away to one of the many people whose bag straps broke from the mounds of memorabilia they gathered in the first few hours (maybe even minutes) of being at Comic-Con.

The best part of my night was discovering a friend from my high school art class, Tony Washington is now artist for World of Warcraft comics. It was late in the evening, so we didn’t have time to chat, but I will be heading back this weekend to catch up on old times. If you are around, check him out in the Artist Alley, booth #FF-22.

The only thing I found disappointing was the lack of costumes. Perhaps it was because it was the opening night with theoretically mostly industry and media peeps, but still sad. Far and away the best costume of the night was the sock monkey. Hopefully these geeks step it up this weekend. I expect more flair of the extreme variety!

What I Learned Today… rain boots and perfection

Sara 2 Comments

I recognize I am not super-human (a fact I have known for a while). When life gets crazy, writing takes a back seat, but the learning never stops. So here are my learnings from yesterday and today.

It is amazingly easy to find rain boots in the summer.

After a slight panic attack yesterday about leaving for the UK next week to camp in Leeds, started my hunt for quality rain boots since it has been raining there for weeks… and rain equals mud. But even in the heat of summer, I didn’t have to dig too deep; rain boots are everywhere (Target, DSW, Wal-Mart, etc.) without a drop of rain in sight.  It is a funny phenomenon but true. Similarly it is hard to find fans and swim suits in the middle of summer because stores don’t want to restock in late July even though San Diego summers REALLY last until late October and sometimes into November. But  rain boots? Really? It won’t be raining here again until January but you wouldn’t know that by window shopping.

There is no such thing as perfect communication.

We all need to communicate in our lives to make relationships work, with work, family and friends. Striving to have good communication is something I have been working on since college. But communication is two-way, giving and receiving on both ends. Since I have little control over the other end, achieving perfect communication. I am constantly amazed at how many people feel communication in various situations at work think it only goes one way. Complaints abound about how they are never told about things that are happening… but at the same time these same individuals don’t ask questions or make an effort to seek out the information.

And then there is communication breakdown, or in other words, forgetting to tell others what is going on (mostly unintentional). This can lead to hurt feelings, frustration, and sometimes, confusion.

Today, we had a forty-five minute discussion on the topic of communication, between coworkers of various levels within the organization. It was not on my agenda, but the resulting discussion (since there was not much of a conclusion) created a more relaxed environment at least in the room. Just knowing their voices had been heard, and understood, made them feel better.

Over all it was an important conversation in understanding the various levels of perceptions and assumptions taking place… no matter how painful and uncomfortable the situation was. I’m pretty sure telepathy is the answer to all communication issues.

Skateworld Rally

Sara 2 Comments

Friends of Skateworld Roller Rink have set up a rally to help save Skateworld, the last roller skating rink in San Diego… or rather bring awareness to the cause… or just to have a party to rally in support of Skateworld. I am not even sure how rallies really help anything in the long run, but on Wednesday, July 28 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, Skateworld is opening its doors for its own version of a rally. Basically you will find an all ages party with free admission and skate rental (or you can bring your own skates).

They suggest to bring signs and banners to skate inside the rink and on the sidewalks in front of the rink to “be seen and be heard.” It sounds like a fun, family friendly free event, but I can’t begin to tell you how it will show my support for San Diego’s ONLY remaining roller rink or show the city council that I want Skateworld to stay… Maybe there will be media? Who knows.

I love these guys to death, but I still don’t think they know what they are dealing with.

What I Learned Today… family con

Sara 3 Comments

Comic Con brings family and friends together, especially this year.

Since securing a four-day Comic Con pass with preview night included, I have been making plans to meet up with people from all walks of my life. It dawned on me today that even if I don’t go, Comic Con bears a huge impact on my life both socially and familialy. 

I know my home is prime real estate for going to Con (for those with cars at least). So I have always wanted to house friends during their stay rather than having them pay astronomical prices for a downtown or Mission Valley hotel. Well… this is the year.

I have friends from college staying over for Friday night that I haven’t seen in  nearly two years. Then I have a cousin who works at the zoo (practically next door to where I work and live) who I haven’t seen in at least two years, as well, that I hope I’ll connect with. Plus there are dozens of other friends I hope to run into at this monstrous event. You say, that’s nearly impossible… friends usually get lost from each other in the mayhem, not find each other.

Well, this year Comic Con is stepping things up a bit. You can pre-plan what events you plan to attend and share them with your friends in the social media of your choice. I love the fact I can directly compare my friends’ schedules with my own making it more likely that we will actually meet up.

A couple of downsides to the way they have it set up:

  1. You can only sign in with one social media site… which mean that if I am signed in through Twitter, I can not see what my friends who signed in through facebook are doing. Lame but I sort of get it. I wish there was a way to tie the two together. Let me know if you somehow figured this out.
  2. The app for the iPhone/iTouch they created has a lot of bugs and does not include many of the “My Schedule” functions. Again, I understand they were working under a short time frame, but I think they shouldn’t have built it half ass. It is better to have no app, than a crappy one.

With my few complaints out-of-the-way, I am truly excited to reconnect with my family and friends in this mega-event of the year. Thank you Comic Con!

What I Learned Today… paper cranes

Sara 1 Comment

Tiny paper cranes make me happy.

This little guy was found sitting atop an empty bottle of beer alongside the box of matches from the Wynn in Las Vegas. Creative finger tips took precious time to make this little slice of positive energy and left for others to enjoy. To all my friends, you are awesome.