Zankou Mega Evil!

I hung out with Katie today, which was a blast and half (maybe even a blast and three fourths of a blast). We went to Zankou Chicken for lunch, which she had never been to before. We caught up and talked about her recent trip to Texas and how life was for us. One shared order of half chicken and hummus later, we went to the 2 dollar theater on Brookhurst & Ball and watched a movie I had missed out on: Megamind!


(Yes, I chose the poster that WASN'T in English. Cuz I'm weird like that).

The movie was actually pretty fun. It asks the question what someone like Lex Luthor would do if ever actually defeated Superman. (Well, a Lex Luthor that is less psychotic and egotistical, anyway). The action looks really great, and the story is actually very well written. I'd recommend it.

Except for a particular point...

!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In the movie, the world believes that Megamind killed Metroman. Even Megamind believes this. But its revealed that Metroman faked his own death so he could stop being a superhero. Eventually, Megamind saves the city Tighten (who Megamind actually created) and the city hails him as a hero. But since everyone believes that Metroman is dead, that means the city is celebrating a murderer. It says a lot about how fickle and forgetful these people are.


!!!!!!!!!!!END OF SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the movie, Katie headed off for home, and I headed out to finish up some errands. I later met up with Carissa to play some Resident Evil 5 and have dinner. While talking, we realized that April was coming up fast, which meant that the Anaheim Comic Con was nigh. We would have to make plans soon to figure out how many of last year's crew we could assemble. Volunteers unite!

Topics of Conversation: Strep Throat's Revenge, life on a ranch, little adventures, the sadness of hunting doves, non-mysteries, titanium, gattling guns, better run, kickback, the magic that is the Slurpee, etc.

-Nate

Anaheim Comic Con - Day 04: The Great Signature Hunt of 2010

As quickly as the storm came, it passed. Sunday was looking to be a day of gathering all the things that I hadn’t been able to grab for the last three days. In an odd way, it felt like Sunday would be the day for volunteers. Where we turn the Con into our own little wandering playground.

And boy did I wander.

For me, today was about getting my shirt signed. I didn’t really have money to buy anything, but I had my rugged charm to use on people to get them to sign my retina-burning yellow volunteer shirt. But I didn’t just want autographs from the celebrity or creative guests, I also wanted all my fellow volunteers to sign my shirt. And piece by piece, I achieved this goal.

MY AUTOGRAPHS!: Ted Raimi. Doug Tennapel. Adam West. Jewel Staith. Burt Ward. Mindy Sterling. Jason Mewes. Ed Asner. Jake Busey. etc.

I narrowly avoided getting a penis drawn on my back, Christine signed my shirt 3 times, and I got a drawing of Earthworm Jim and Batman. The shirt looks awesome. I’ll have to figure out a way to display it so that both sides can be seen.

After the Con closed up for the last day, the volunteers and I went into the back to do some clean up. And then we got to grab our SWAG Bags. And these were special Volunteer Swag Bags. Their were 10 Hour, 20 Hours, 30 Hours, and finally, 40 Hours bags. Each pertained to the number of hours a volunteer put in for the whole Comic Con. I did 37 hours. Whoo boy. I got the 40 Hour bag and felt like a very tired Fan Boy.

Many thanks to all the people that helped make the Anaheim Comic Con rock. A special thank you to the first 19 on Thursday, as I will remember your names for a long time to come. I can’t wait to volunteer next year!

Topics of Conversation @ The Con: How to say Beardo, drawing penises on shirts, Adam We, the irresistibleness of David Tennant, baby Thors, being Vanilla, the parade of R2’s, Dollhouse spoilers, Ninja: The Game, suran wrap, trying to find a dinosaur poster, etc.

-Nate

Anaheim Comic Con - Day 03: Hurricane Doherty

As was foretold by the Prophets of WizardWorld, Saturday descended into anarchy.

It was mostly due to the actions of one star. Not Adam West. Not William Shatner. Not Verne Troyer. No, gentle reader. None of these stars were able to achieve as much infamy, or generate as much general chaos as the one and only:

SHANNON DOHERTY.

It started out simple. As do all stories of hell unleashed. Doherty’s handler, a fellow named Mike, required the attentions of three volunteers to help escort Doherty, and fellow Charmed star Holly Marie Combs, to their autograph booth. As we waited for them, the number of volunteers needed grew to a total of six. 6 volunteers should have been overkill. I began to wonder if they would really need me. But Mike was resolute, so I remained with the large group.

The plan changed slightly, because Doherty and Combs had brought along their own photographer, and would need to unload the equipment nearby. They pulled their cars around the back, and entered through the loading dock. I ran to retrieve a cart to take the equipment. Emphasis on “ran.” It had been a farther distance than I had thought it would be. Argh.

We set up the autograph booth, and the fans arrived. About a hundred, if my math was right. Because there were so many, we had to separate the main body of the line. This was problematic because we would need to go retrieve small groups of the line to ferry over to the booth. But what really became problematic was the price. Because, in a word...

It was pricey.

Doherty and Combs were charging $40 to have their photographer take a picture of them with the fan. ON TOP of that, it would cost $20 for their autograph. EACH. So you were looking at a total of $80 by the time you were stepping out of the booth. Wow. But the fans agreed, and the line was still long and strong an hour or two later.

Then Shannon Doherty went on a cigarette break.

By the time she came back, the price for a picture with both Combs and Doherty went up to $60. And the price for each autograph? $30 each. EACH. So now you were spending $120 easy.

*CHOKE*

And like magic, the line got cut in half. What had originally been an hour wait, was now 15 minutes. Fans were pretty pissed. Heck, I was pissed. Honestly, if she had stuck with her original price, she would have gotten a hell of a lot more money in the long run. Tsk, tsk.

A little later, I got shifted around to other duties. I even got to hang out with Ted Raimi at his booth for a bit. After the madness of ShaDo, it was nice to talk to a genuinely nice guy like Ted Raimi. Let it be heard from the mountain tops! That guy is an okay guy.

I met up with Justin to catch my lunch and figure out the plan for later that night. My friend Jamal was going to have a Doctor Who night watching the first three episodes of the 5th Series with Matt Smith, the new, 11th, Doctor. Hopefully I would get out of the Con in time to watch it with them.

I began the slow process of collecting signatures for my volunteer shirt. I started with Ted Raimi, then got Doug Tenapel (creator of Earthworm Jim), and continued from there. But I wouldn’t be just segregated to celebrities and the such. I fully planned to collect the other volunteer’s signatures by the end of the 4th day.

After the Con, I hitched a ride with Justin AND Jamal, who decided to come along to show some love. We picked up some dinner and then headed to Jamal’s apartment. Ben joined us before the first episode was finished.

We watched The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, and Victory of the Daleks. Let me first clarify that David Tennant is going to be my Doctor for all time. Nothing can, or will, change that. That being said…

Matt Smith is really, really good.

I mean, wow. This guy has a really incredible grip on who his Doctor is. He’s weirder. He’s more sly. And he is the equal to every actor that’s gone ahead of him. My hat goes off to him. He quite possibly went into being the Doctor amidst more nay-saying and bitterness than Tennant had had to deal with. And he impressed me. Good going, Mr. Smith.

And Stephen Moffat, the new show runner, is going all out. With great writing and new creations to help bolster the already 50-odd years of continuity and rogue’s gallery. Though I think the new opening credits are a bit ridiculous, and the new version of the theme isn‘t quite hitting the right note with me, it cannot be said that the new run will go unnoticed. So my over-all feelings about the new Doctor Who? In two words:

I’m down.

Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Tasers, travel with no excuses, ferries, vicious lawyers, how can electricity be individually allocated, Hawaii fever, The New Doctor Will Skull-F**k You!, the kindness of burritos, Amy Pond, the genius of the green tongue, etc.

-Nate

Anaheim Comic Con - Day 02: More Swag Bags

I made a deal with my Dad so that he could drop me off at the Con. That way, I didn’t have to pay for parking. He agreed, because he’s cool like that. I entered the Con, which was now alive and kicking. I stared at the DeLorean with loving eyes. And I took a deep breath.

After which…

I should remember what happened the rest of the day. I should. But I don’t. And I was just there. But it was a bunch of urgently getting things done. And at some point I ate a sandwich, before which I helped unload an entire pallet full of desperately-needed bottled water. I recognized Mark Lutz, the guy who played the Groosalugg in Angel. I handed out a friggin’ ton of Swag Bags.

I did meet some more new volunteers. Again, the bonding moment was the SWAG Bag assembly. There’s a magic in those bags, I think.

Brenna
Drey
Allison
Kate
(and others, please don't be annoyed at me)

I also saw Adam West in person. He’s looking older, but he sounds fantastic.

Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Scientific curiosity concerning lesbians, the infinite sadness of the D-list celebrity, Disney memories, Belgium, Verne Troyer being smaller than we had all thought, nicknames of infamy, etc.

-Nate

Anaheim Comic Con - Day 01: 19 Names, All In a Row

The first day of four days of volunteering at the Anaheim Comic Con! Boo-Ya!

I drove to the Anaheim Convention Center only to find that there was no volunteer parking, or discounted, or anything that would save me from breaking my projected Comic Con budget of $0.00. I grimaced and paid the ten bucks that I hadn’t wanted to fork over. I guess its just life in the big city. Or at least in AnaCrime.

I slowly made my way to Con, trying to figure out where the Coffee Convention ended and the Comic Con began. Apparently Hall D was the place to be. Which was a longer walk than I had anticipated, but walking long distances was something that I knew that I would need to get accustomed to ASAP. I idly wondered how many miles I would clock in at by Day 04.
I made it to the Con to find it still being in the process of being assembled. My contact was a fellow named Spat, and I was told that I would know who he was by the crowd of people following in his wake. This description came to be true, as I found Spat on his entourage of volunteers near the back of the Hall.

The crew was nearly up to a little over a dozen by the time I arrived, and Spat started off by walking us around the Convention Center. I greeted a few of the volunteers and we chatted a little as we walked. We even picked up a few more volunteers as we ambled along. I forgot all their names very quickly, because I am awful at names, and feel just as guilty about that as I am bad at remembering.

As luck would have it, I stumbled upon an exercise that would alleviate that problem.
One of the duties of the Pre-Show Thursday was the stuffing of the coveted free SWAG Bag. (S.W.A.G. = Stuff We All Get) This consisted of a plastic bag with one copy each of the magazines Wizard, ToyFare, and FunFare. We would follow this up with a little card advertisement of Geek’d, and a starter card pack of Magic: Planeswalker. To do this, we got into an Assembly Line of one person passing out each of the ingredients of the SWAG Bag. So that would be 5 or 6 people on the line, with the rest grabbing bags and filling them up. At first we did this in silence, just getting through it all.

Then I started introducing myself.

This was to each person that I gave a magazine. But the key was that I kept introducing myself to each person over and over. And asking for their name in return. At first it was dumb, but it soon became apparent that it was helping me out. A LOT. I must have said each person’s name 50 times. And I found myself just goofing around with them as we worked.
And now I remember each and every person by their name:

Andre
Katie
Carissa
Darryl
Jon
Michael
Joel
Christine
Roy
Alex
Romiro
Shawn
Rob
Alan
Jimmy
Trini
Wilsa
Joey
Connie

As for spelling of said names, I’m not sure. I didn’t ask them all to spell, because that’s just insane. I’m just happy I could remember their names. It was a personal achievement.

Topics of Conversation @ The Con: TheYellow Ranger, comics to start on, name combinations, hand hugs, being so tired I have to sing, saying someone’s name a ridiculous amount of times, the all-time high of 11 bags, Juliet Landeau being sick, etc.

-Nate