a SDCC post
Jul. 29th, 2014 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaWednesday:
- Mucked about home for a bit then went to the bus station. At the Greyhound stop, I saw a dude walk in with a large colourful bag that must have been a swag bag at some point and a shirt with colourful Batman logos. Thus I knew he was one of us. We struck up a conversation. (He goes to RCC. Wants to get into reviewing.)
- We got to San Diego and caught a trolley. It's just one stop away! But it was faster than if I had walked and lugged my stuff over.
- Diana found me in the lobby of the Omni and yaaaayyyyy! We went to the convention center to get my badge and her to find stuff in the Exhibit Hall. I was shunted to the end of a Very Long Line to get into the merch hall because wow, preview night, what the hell.
- After some time wandering the exhibit hall, during which time I foundladyjax's booth and she introduced me to a couple of actors for a new series that has yet to be picked up by any channel. They were giving out buttons, one for every day.
- Diana and I had dinner at the first restaurant we ran into, a Very Experience Japanese place. It had the most delicious eel I've had but holy wow, that price.
- Scott Westerfeld was also in town! So we went to have drinks with him. That was fun.
Thursday:
- Started the day with a panel on the connection between fanfic writing and professional writing. It was a really interesting panel! Also the most useful panel I attended all weekend. I met Dr. Dru Pagliasotti, who I first internet-met back in 2010! She gave me a copy of the sequel to Clockwork Heart.
- I hustled to the Steampunk and Pop Culture panel which was full of people I knew vaguely by reputation. My friend Claire Hummel was on it though! The moderator was a local San Diego geek BNF and it was kind of a frustrating panel for me because I felt that the panelists had very interesting things to say, but the moderator just did not indulge in it at all, so it was very superficial with hints of interesting things.
- I don't really remember what happened next beyond wandering the exhibit floor saying hi to people, but I went to get some crabcake sliders and then attempted to nap in the hotel. Despite being up on the 13th floor, the noise from the Petco Park was INCREDIBLY AUDIBLE and I didn't actually get to rest until MUCH later. It was very overwhelming. I missed the Trangender Trends panel. Arturo Garcia totally Storified it though! It looks like it was terribly interesting.
- When I got up, I wandered up 5th street checking out how crowded the street was and where would be a good place to eat that was a sight more affordable than Nobu. Then I went back and grabbed people.
- Diana and I had dinner with the Clockwork Watch folks, Yomi and Cory, at another sushi place that was more affordable. Not really good katsu though. We made fun of Yomi's attempt to get everyone at the table drunk, because Diana drinks vodka, not beer. Also, I don't drink much, and appear to be impervious to peer pressure.
- A comics reviewer came by and also hung out, and then we all went to the Comic Book Defense Fund League fundraiser party, where we ran into Scott Westerfeld again! AND Tobias Buckell!! I introduced Cory and Yomi to Tobias and they chattered about Barbados for a long time and it was great.
Friday:
- Got early and dressed steampunk!
- Got to the convention center around 9am to wait an hour for The Black Panel. It was fun; Kevin Grevioux was on the panel, and his voice is dreamy as fuck. Erika Alexander and Cree Summer were also on the panel. So was Orlando Jones! It was a lot of fun but Mike Davis is.... problematic i.e. he fetishizes Asian and white women and he makes a ton of inappropriate remarks re: black women (at some point he was like "this is why I don't date black women; I can't pronounce their names" and Orlando was like "he means, this is why black women won't date him"). Then he couldn't pronounce Racialicious! Which is fucked up because Arturo has been going to the Black Panel for years now and everytime he introduces himself as a Racialicious correspondent and never had David respond like this before.
- Hustled over to "Is It Steampunk" which had a Q&A format where the panelists decided whether a particular media, ranging from old movies to new video games, are steampunk.
-ladyjax's booth was having an autograph session with the whole cast of the series they were promoting and I'd been given a thing that offered an exclusive autograph and was told, come back between 1 - 3pm, so that is what I did, and said hello to people.
- Diana then had the Witty Women of Steampunk panel! So many of my friends were on it! I went around handing out fliers for Steampunk World! Even then I didn't even dent my stack. I am not good at handing out fliers, it seems.
- I really needed to pass out at the end, so after some post-panel shenanigans involving lolitas wearing hilarious fabric and toilet seeking and whatnot, I followed Diana to her booth where she gave me her bag of her costume since she wasn't allowed to cosplay at the booth.
- Dinner was at Pokez, with Arturo, Diana, Lisa and a few other people! Yomi and Cory were supposed to join us but they had to see a friend from LA and I guess after that they went to rest and have a shower so they only showed up around midnight while we hung out at the Hilton Bayfront just as I went home. Apparently the Hilton is where the greatest number of celebrity sightings are but none of us knew who the crowds were surrounding?? We'd be like, all right, random white lady? What's she in??
Saturday:
- Diana and I managed to a) sleep in for once and b) have breakfast at the Marriott Marquis with Claire Hummel! That was neat. The food at that hotel was so much better. At some point Diana graciously brought us a plate of bacon. Like, she piled it HIGH. And it was amazing bacon.
- I wandered the exhibit hall for a long time afterwards because Greg Van Eekhout was signing (I finally cottoned to the fact that the books being signed at the Tor booth were, in fact, FREE and GIVEN AWAY, not things I had to buy) and also because Christopher Judge was supposed to be there around 10am and then at 2pm! So, yeah. I don't think I did any panels that day, it was mostly shopping. I also chatted with people (like this one guy who's a big name voiceover actor and was celebrating 30 years since he participated in a campaign to get Transformers toys into stores and showed me pictures of himself in Grimlock and Starscreamer costumes and regaled me with stories about how kids would try to pick up Grimlock's tail and tip him over as a result) (his recent work was an audiobook of a comedy scifi trilogy called Cheese Runners). I retreated to hang out with Cory and Yomi a lot because they always graciously let me have a chair.
- I TOTALLY GOT AN AUTOGRAPH AND PHOTO FROM CHRIS JUDGE WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
- Diana and I were hoping for a steampunk ladies' night that night but everyone had plans so instead we went to the Melting Pot for dinner. (Yomi and Cory joined us much later.)
- We then went to the League of Steam's thing where I proceeded to yell and slap at someone who looked like he was fiddling with Diana's back zipper but turned out to be a friend of hers. He didn't want to talk to me after that which is kind of understandable. I probably should do the thing where I don't wait for people to introduce me to their friends. But more friends came filtering in and we ended up walking home with Anina and Paul and Yomi and Cory (altho the latter were headed to the Hyatt rather than home). This means I finally got introduce Yomi and Cory to Anina and Paul. (I saw Cory sitting by himself and Paul was only listening in on a conversation so I very firmly dragged Paul over, and it's about time they met anyway, and Paul and Anina are a couple of the most gracious people I have ever met.)
Sunday:
- We had to check out, and Diana had the morning shift, so we left our bags at reception and I went to the Greyhound Station to update my bus ticket.
- I wandered the Exhibit Hall again, this time going for a corner I'd never been to before, just to check things out. Made some small talk here and there.
- At some point I went to sit along a wall, and made small talk with an elderly Asian dad whose teen kids were in the hall somewhere. And then Shing, who drew the nice art for THE SEA IS OURS promo postcards, came to see me there! We hung out for a few minutes and then she had to go.
- I went to the Petco Park to get some food from the overpriced food trucks, which were still delicious food, all told.
- Then I wandered back toladyjax's booth, got my final button of the weekend, and chatted with Christopher Judge. He was SO NICE! He even listened to me babble about stuff. I gave him fliers. And then I was all like "Jackie I want a daily hug!" (I figure I need an excuse to visit friends' booths again and again, and daily hugs seem to do) AND THEN! Christopher Judge! Offered ME! A HUG! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Because I ran out of places to keep wandering to, and also because my feet were killing me because I was wearing ballet flats all weekend, I went to sit with Cory and Yomi AGAIN, but this time I asked if I could hand out my postcards. Which I did. And I realized that maybe this is what I should have done all along. (Well what I SHOULD have done was get them sent up to the Freebie table in the Sails Pavilion but I did not know I could do that.) I got quite a few interesting conversations as a result. Gave my card to a couple of people. Hopefully I hear from them.
- Arturo and I went to the "Battle for Multicultural Heroes" which.... SIGH. If a panel that is supposed to talk about race and representation starts with a disclaimer of "We Love White People" then just, no. I ranted about it afterwards. We then went to the Omni where Diana and the Seven Seas folks were going for drinks and we had a round of drinks while waiting for our ride.
(It turns out that people have rented BOATS on the bay behind the convention center? I must investigate this.)
- Our friend Ingred came to get us to her house. Ingred and her husband Eric are super chatty and it's not idle chatter either; it's VERY informative and interesting stuff! We went to a family diner for dinner, where they told us about the San Diego geek scene which sounds... terrible? It sounds a total mess anyway.
- We turned in early, because we were awake so early and were really tired.
Monday:
- Breakfast was at a greasy spoon diner! It was really nice ^^ I had a bacon waffle, which was a good size: not too big, not too small. One of those skinny waffles that's easy to cut, too.
- Ingred took us downtown to the Hilton Bayfront where Diana and I had lunch with Anina and Paul (and a couple of their friends). I was hoping to have some time in between lunch and my bus to hang out with Lisa, but oh well.
- My bus ride home was uneventful and I slept a lot. Then I had dinner with JC and JR from the English department.
And that was my SDCC weekend!
- Mucked about home for a bit then went to the bus station. At the Greyhound stop, I saw a dude walk in with a large colourful bag that must have been a swag bag at some point and a shirt with colourful Batman logos. Thus I knew he was one of us. We struck up a conversation. (He goes to RCC. Wants to get into reviewing.)
- We got to San Diego and caught a trolley. It's just one stop away! But it was faster than if I had walked and lugged my stuff over.
- Diana found me in the lobby of the Omni and yaaaayyyyy! We went to the convention center to get my badge and her to find stuff in the Exhibit Hall. I was shunted to the end of a Very Long Line to get into the merch hall because wow, preview night, what the hell.
- After some time wandering the exhibit hall, during which time I found
ladyjax's booth and she introduced me to a couple of actors for a new series that has yet to be picked up by any channel. They were giving out buttons, one for every day. - Diana and I had dinner at the first restaurant we ran into, a Very Experience Japanese place. It had the most delicious eel I've had but holy wow, that price.
- Scott Westerfeld was also in town! So we went to have drinks with him. That was fun.
Thursday:
- Started the day with a panel on the connection between fanfic writing and professional writing. It was a really interesting panel! Also the most useful panel I attended all weekend. I met Dr. Dru Pagliasotti, who I first internet-met back in 2010! She gave me a copy of the sequel to Clockwork Heart.
- I hustled to the Steampunk and Pop Culture panel which was full of people I knew vaguely by reputation. My friend Claire Hummel was on it though! The moderator was a local San Diego geek BNF and it was kind of a frustrating panel for me because I felt that the panelists had very interesting things to say, but the moderator just did not indulge in it at all, so it was very superficial with hints of interesting things.
- I don't really remember what happened next beyond wandering the exhibit floor saying hi to people, but I went to get some crabcake sliders and then attempted to nap in the hotel. Despite being up on the 13th floor, the noise from the Petco Park was INCREDIBLY AUDIBLE and I didn't actually get to rest until MUCH later. It was very overwhelming. I missed the Trangender Trends panel. Arturo Garcia totally Storified it though! It looks like it was terribly interesting.
- When I got up, I wandered up 5th street checking out how crowded the street was and where would be a good place to eat that was a sight more affordable than Nobu. Then I went back and grabbed people.
- Diana and I had dinner with the Clockwork Watch folks, Yomi and Cory, at another sushi place that was more affordable. Not really good katsu though. We made fun of Yomi's attempt to get everyone at the table drunk, because Diana drinks vodka, not beer. Also, I don't drink much, and appear to be impervious to peer pressure.
- A comics reviewer came by and also hung out, and then we all went to the Comic Book Defense Fund League fundraiser party, where we ran into Scott Westerfeld again! AND Tobias Buckell!! I introduced Cory and Yomi to Tobias and they chattered about Barbados for a long time and it was great.
Friday:
- Got early and dressed steampunk!
- Got to the convention center around 9am to wait an hour for The Black Panel. It was fun; Kevin Grevioux was on the panel, and his voice is dreamy as fuck. Erika Alexander and Cree Summer were also on the panel. So was Orlando Jones! It was a lot of fun but Mike Davis is.... problematic i.e. he fetishizes Asian and white women and he makes a ton of inappropriate remarks re: black women (at some point he was like "this is why I don't date black women; I can't pronounce their names" and Orlando was like "he means, this is why black women won't date him"). Then he couldn't pronounce Racialicious! Which is fucked up because Arturo has been going to the Black Panel for years now and everytime he introduces himself as a Racialicious correspondent and never had David respond like this before.
- Hustled over to "Is It Steampunk" which had a Q&A format where the panelists decided whether a particular media, ranging from old movies to new video games, are steampunk.
-
ladyjax's booth was having an autograph session with the whole cast of the series they were promoting and I'd been given a thing that offered an exclusive autograph and was told, come back between 1 - 3pm, so that is what I did, and said hello to people. - Diana then had the Witty Women of Steampunk panel! So many of my friends were on it! I went around handing out fliers for Steampunk World! Even then I didn't even dent my stack. I am not good at handing out fliers, it seems.
- I really needed to pass out at the end, so after some post-panel shenanigans involving lolitas wearing hilarious fabric and toilet seeking and whatnot, I followed Diana to her booth where she gave me her bag of her costume since she wasn't allowed to cosplay at the booth.
- Dinner was at Pokez, with Arturo, Diana, Lisa and a few other people! Yomi and Cory were supposed to join us but they had to see a friend from LA and I guess after that they went to rest and have a shower so they only showed up around midnight while we hung out at the Hilton Bayfront just as I went home. Apparently the Hilton is where the greatest number of celebrity sightings are but none of us knew who the crowds were surrounding?? We'd be like, all right, random white lady? What's she in??
Saturday:
- Diana and I managed to a) sleep in for once and b) have breakfast at the Marriott Marquis with Claire Hummel! That was neat. The food at that hotel was so much better. At some point Diana graciously brought us a plate of bacon. Like, she piled it HIGH. And it was amazing bacon.
- I wandered the exhibit hall for a long time afterwards because Greg Van Eekhout was signing (I finally cottoned to the fact that the books being signed at the Tor booth were, in fact, FREE and GIVEN AWAY, not things I had to buy) and also because Christopher Judge was supposed to be there around 10am and then at 2pm! So, yeah. I don't think I did any panels that day, it was mostly shopping. I also chatted with people (like this one guy who's a big name voiceover actor and was celebrating 30 years since he participated in a campaign to get Transformers toys into stores and showed me pictures of himself in Grimlock and Starscreamer costumes and regaled me with stories about how kids would try to pick up Grimlock's tail and tip him over as a result) (his recent work was an audiobook of a comedy scifi trilogy called Cheese Runners). I retreated to hang out with Cory and Yomi a lot because they always graciously let me have a chair.
- I TOTALLY GOT AN AUTOGRAPH AND PHOTO FROM CHRIS JUDGE WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
- Diana and I were hoping for a steampunk ladies' night that night but everyone had plans so instead we went to the Melting Pot for dinner. (Yomi and Cory joined us much later.)
- We then went to the League of Steam's thing where I proceeded to yell and slap at someone who looked like he was fiddling with Diana's back zipper but turned out to be a friend of hers. He didn't want to talk to me after that which is kind of understandable. I probably should do the thing where I don't wait for people to introduce me to their friends. But more friends came filtering in and we ended up walking home with Anina and Paul and Yomi and Cory (altho the latter were headed to the Hyatt rather than home). This means I finally got introduce Yomi and Cory to Anina and Paul. (I saw Cory sitting by himself and Paul was only listening in on a conversation so I very firmly dragged Paul over, and it's about time they met anyway, and Paul and Anina are a couple of the most gracious people I have ever met.)
Sunday:
- We had to check out, and Diana had the morning shift, so we left our bags at reception and I went to the Greyhound Station to update my bus ticket.
- I wandered the Exhibit Hall again, this time going for a corner I'd never been to before, just to check things out. Made some small talk here and there.
- At some point I went to sit along a wall, and made small talk with an elderly Asian dad whose teen kids were in the hall somewhere. And then Shing, who drew the nice art for THE SEA IS OURS promo postcards, came to see me there! We hung out for a few minutes and then she had to go.
- I went to the Petco Park to get some food from the overpriced food trucks, which were still delicious food, all told.
- Then I wandered back to
ladyjax's booth, got my final button of the weekend, and chatted with Christopher Judge. He was SO NICE! He even listened to me babble about stuff. I gave him fliers. And then I was all like "Jackie I want a daily hug!" (I figure I need an excuse to visit friends' booths again and again, and daily hugs seem to do) AND THEN! Christopher Judge! Offered ME! A HUG! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Because I ran out of places to keep wandering to, and also because my feet were killing me because I was wearing ballet flats all weekend, I went to sit with Cory and Yomi AGAIN, but this time I asked if I could hand out my postcards. Which I did. And I realized that maybe this is what I should have done all along. (Well what I SHOULD have done was get them sent up to the Freebie table in the Sails Pavilion but I did not know I could do that.) I got quite a few interesting conversations as a result. Gave my card to a couple of people. Hopefully I hear from them.
- Arturo and I went to the "Battle for Multicultural Heroes" which.... SIGH. If a panel that is supposed to talk about race and representation starts with a disclaimer of "We Love White People" then just, no. I ranted about it afterwards. We then went to the Omni where Diana and the Seven Seas folks were going for drinks and we had a round of drinks while waiting for our ride.
(It turns out that people have rented BOATS on the bay behind the convention center? I must investigate this.)
- Our friend Ingred came to get us to her house. Ingred and her husband Eric are super chatty and it's not idle chatter either; it's VERY informative and interesting stuff! We went to a family diner for dinner, where they told us about the San Diego geek scene which sounds... terrible? It sounds a total mess anyway.
- We turned in early, because we were awake so early and were really tired.
Monday:
- Breakfast was at a greasy spoon diner! It was really nice ^^ I had a bacon waffle, which was a good size: not too big, not too small. One of those skinny waffles that's easy to cut, too.
- Ingred took us downtown to the Hilton Bayfront where Diana and I had lunch with Anina and Paul (and a couple of their friends). I was hoping to have some time in between lunch and my bus to hang out with Lisa, but oh well.
- My bus ride home was uneventful and I slept a lot. Then I had dinner with JC and JR from the English department.
And that was my SDCC weekend!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-07-30 03:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-04 02:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-04 04:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-06 10:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-07 01:38 am (UTC)