Comic Con Day Three

Today was the first day that I was scheduled to actually work at The Guild booth. It was also the only day that had a panel that I absolutely wanted to see "V" . Also my good buddy Will was driving in to hang with me the last two days... so I was excited to see him.

So Ethan and I got up and did our normally morning thing, but instead of walking to the convention center we got a taxi. Got to the con around 9:30am. Headed to the The Guild booth. Once I got there Kim we prepping for a signing at the Browncoats booth. So I helped with that. She also informed me that they didn't need me today to work the booth. So instead I helped carry stuff over to the Browncoats table but more important was Felicia Day's bodyguard.. okay not really my since the Browncoats table is all the way on the other side of the hall I was in charge of preventing fans from stopping her as whenever Felicia was out on the floor people would constantly stop her. So with Kim on one side and me on the other we navigated the crowds and got Felicia to the Browncoats table in time and only got stopped a few times.

After the signing I took the stuff back to the Guild booth. I should have gotten in line for V now as it was about three hours before the panel but my buddy Will was not here yet and I had his pass and couldn't get into a line because I couldn't get out to give him his pass when he arrived. I also didn't want to wait three hours in line for a panel as I had heard that the line was already super long at this time and there was no guarantee that I would get in anyways. So instead I hooked up with some Guildies, Dani, Eva, Lydia, and Nas and headed out to Cafe Diem for lunch. (Cafe Diem is a fictitious cafe on Eureka that they created in a building down the street from the con.)
A few more Guildies joined us for lunch, Luis and Fernie. During lunch an old friend of mine just happened to run into me. CJ it was great seeing you, wish would spent more time together. Towards the end of lunch my buddy Will called and said he had arrived. So I directed him to the Cafe and we hooked up.

After lunch I spent the rest of the day with Will roaming around the convention center as this was Will's first Comic Con. We did the floor and he even did a VO panel. We had a great time and Will who I knew was a little geeky turned out to be an even bigger geek then I thought and I love him even more for it.After the floor closed at 7pm Will and I headed upstairs to attend the Legend of Neil panel. Of course there was a line but because I had worked on the show I was able to get Will and I in with the cast and crew so we got some decent seats. We watched the first three episodes of season two and then the panel including Sandeep and Felicia. It was a lot of fun. We then let with a bunch of Guildies and headed down to fifth street to find a place to eat. Every place was so busy and the wait were crazy so we continued to walk further down the road until we got to TGI Friday and was told the wait would be 20 minutes.. well about an hour later we finally sat down for dinner.

After dinner Will and I went back to his car and drove to the hotel, luckily we found a parking space on the street right behind my jeep. So we parked and went back to the hotel. By this time it was almost 1am and we were tired. We hung out a bit and chatted and waited for Ethan to get back as he was moving to the room next door in with Brian as Will was bunking with me. I think we finally went to bed around 2am and had to be up at 8am to do the final do of Con.

Comic Con Day Two

This was the BIG GUILD DAY... it was the day of the Guild panel and huge announcements were being made. Today I got up and felt pretty good. I got a good five hours sleep and didn't seem to have a hangover. Ethan and I got up and rushed out as we wanted to get to the convention center as The Guild panel was at 10:30am but we knew there would be a line and I have to say we were not disappointed. When I got there I saw Ethan pretty far back in the line but I told him I would see if I could find Dani and the other guildies and sure enough they were about 20 or so folks back from the front so Ethan and I kind of slipped into line with them. I was told I would have a saved seat because I was going to video tape it. So the line went on and on and they finally opened the doors. The Guildies found pretty good seats as I went looking for my assigned seat. I was in the second row right in the middle. I met up with Michele Boyd and her parents, they are very sweet people. I noticed a seat next to Michele's Mom and asked if I could take as I would be front row center, the perfect spot to video the panel from. A few moments later the Whedon clan walked in.. that's right Jed and Maurissa who worked on the music video and next to them the master himself.. Joss Whedon. So I was sitting four seats away from him, I tried to not get all giddy but it was tough. Once everyone was seated the panel started Kim Evey (producer) came out and introduce a very special video that was exclusive to Comic Con. Of course I knew it was The music video but once it started the crowd went crazy. The laughed, clapped, cheered and applauded in all the right places. Once it was over Kim introduced the cast and they all came out in their Avatar outfits with their weapons.

Once the cast was out and seated Kim went on to introduce the world premiere of the first episode of Season Three. Again the crowd ate it up, laughed, cheered and applauded in all the right spaces and then at the very end when the second big surprise was revealed, you could hear the intact of breath from the 500 + attendees. A close up on the face of Wil Wheaton and then a pull out the introduce the rival Guild Axis of Anarchy... then To Be Continued... the crowd went crazy as Kim brought out Wil Wheaton who joined the panel.

After Wil come out Kim Evey brought up another guy who was with Dark Horse Comic and he announced that The Guild was getting it's own comic book. That is was mainly deal with the lives of The Guild's Avatars in game. Of course the crowd went crazy with excitement.

After that they finished the panel with a Q & A where we found out that Jeff Lewis and his wife who were recently married plan on getting married in game. Felicia is trying to level up her priest so she can marry them. The panel finished up and we started to head out. Come to find out that the room we were in only held 500 people and when Kim and Felicia asked for a bigger room they were told that they were just a webseries and didn't need the space. Well we had over 1100 people line up. We could have filled a room double the size and still have to turn people away. Let's hope Comic Con officials took notice.

Today I swore that I would stay away from the Guild Booth as I really wanted to walk the floor. But after the panel I decided to head over to the booth and glad I did as it was pretty busy and it was being maned by just one person. So I helped out a bit until it slowed down. I then grabbed some lunch from the cafe in the hall. It's convenient but costs lots of money. After lunch I finally was able to walk around the floor and take pictures of folks in costume and see all the cool stuff coming out next year. I also got to meet a Treks in Sci fi online friend that I have talked to for years her name is Desi and even though we didn't get to spend a ton of time together she was very sweet and a pleasure to talk to. I still didn't do any panels and when the hall closed at 7pm Ethan and I went back to Nicky Rottens for some dinner. Ethan being young wanted to go out and party. But I had been out past midnight the past few nights and even though I had been invited to an exclusive Roddenberry/Star Trek party and Jinx party I decided instead to head back to the hotel for some much needed rest. A few hours later Ethan showed up as the Jinx party was hot and crowded. We hung out and chatted for a bit before heading to bed.

This was a huge day for The Guild and I was happy to be part of it.

Comic Con Day One

The day didn't start off to well.. our hotel room was super hot and had no air conditioner (That's what I get for going cheap) so I got very little sleep but I was excited for the con. I had already picked up my pass last night so I didn't have to deal with the crowds/lines to get the pass which made me very happy. Ethan and I headed out at 9am and arrived at the convention center around 9:30am. When we entered we went our own ways as Ethan wanted to check out a panel. I headed over to The Guild booth to say hi. I was not scheduled to work. I had a long list of panels that I wanted to see but they were not a priority. When I got to the table one of the guys who was working it wanted to go see our friends (Jared) panel. I too wanted to see it but the crowds were so bad and I was a bit tired so I told him I would stay and watch the table instead and he could go to the panel. Well after the panel they never came back, I assume he did lunch and stuff, by the time he returned it was 2:15 and his shift was over at 2:30 so I said I would stay and wait for the replacement. So I spent from 9:30am to 2:30pm at The Guild booth. It was alot of fun as I got to meet a bunch of Guild fans and a few Knights of the Guild fans. When I was relived I went and had some lunch and decided to walk the dealer room floor. Thursday was so jammed pack it felt like a Saturday. After a few hours of taking pictures and check out the floor I headed back to The Guild booth.. it became a center for the Guild fandom where folks would come together and meet up. It was so crowded there that I wound up staying at the guild booth the rest of the day until 6pm.

Once the hall was closed Ethan and I headed back to the hotel room to get ready for the exclusive Xbox/Guild party. It started at 9:30pm and would go until midnight. We got there a little before 9:30am and because we were within walking distance of the Hard Rock Hotel (where the party was) I decided to drink. Those of you who know me know I'm not a big drinker but this was going to be one exception. So I had a drink and since I was a light weight I got tipsy real quick and to top it off I didn't eat dinner, so the alcohol went right to my head. Of course I had two more drink and was feeling great. I was drunk but not enough to not remember what I did. I was the liaison of "The Guildies" Dani, Jeff, Nas, Luis, Eva and a few others between them and the stars of the Guild. They would ask me to introduce them to Robin or Amy or Felicia. So I spent the night introducing the gang to the Guild cast and others... it was a fun night.. everyone was in a great mood and it was also Sandeeps birthday and man he was plastered, even I could tell that. All in all it was a fun start to Con. After the party Ethan and I stumbled our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

So It Begins... Comic Con Day 0

So the day started out pretty good, I finished packing up stuff as I knew I wanted to leave around noon because I had to go pick my a Ethan (Guild intern) from a friends house in San Diego as he was going to be my roommate. So I load up my jeep and get a quick lesson on how to use Harry's GPS. I begin my joureny south but first fill up on gas.

I hit the road and for the most part things go smoothly, there was traffic here and there but nothing like it was last year where it took me 11 hours to get down there. This time it was a little over three hours. I pick up Ethan and then we head furthur into San Diego and to "Little Italy" where our hotel is.

We check in around 4pm and decide to shower and rest for a bit as we didn't have to meet everyone until 5:30pm. The hotel was a healty 30 minute walk. We get to the convention center around 5:45pm and it's packed. Since this was preview night the hall was open from 6pm to 9pm.

Ethan went to find Kim who had his pass while I stood in the "Professional" line to pick up my passes. This line was huge but surprisely took only about a half hour to get thru. Once in I went to the Guild's booth to say hi as I was not suppose to work the booth until the weekend, but as soon as I get there the cast had just started to sign autographes and there was a huge mass of people and I got sucked into helping with crowd control. Three hours later as the hall was closing I was released from my duties. So even though I wasn't schedule to work it was a good thing I was there as they needed all hands on deck for that signing.

During this time I got to meet some very cool Guildie fans, these are folks that I have talked to, either voice or text chat, online. One fan named Ryan reconized me from my avatar, as he was standing in line he asked me about my podcast Knights of the Guild. I was kind of surprised and flattered that someone reconized me. We stuck up a conversation and I gave him some KOTG swag. I didn't have t-shirt on me so I told him to come back and I would give him one of those too. I also got to be long time online buddies Dani, Nas and Eva. We have talked many times in Watchtheguild.com chat forum and it was great to finally meet them face to face.

After the signing we all (Jenni, Stuart, Ethan, Dani, Nas, Eva and a few others) decided to go grab some dinner. As the Con was just let out things were a mad house as we looked for a resturant that we weren't going to have to wait two hours to eat. After several tries and the group almost giving up we found a place called Nicky Rottens' Bar and Burger Joint. They were able to seat us all in like ten minutes. Sean Becker and Ferny Chien joined us along with some other Guildies.. we all chatted and had a great time. Somewhere around midnight the dinner party was over and everyone started to head back to thier hotels as we were all getting up early for the first day of con.

All in all it was a crazy but fun first day.. and this is only the beginning.

Home Loan MIA

Well as I had mentioned in previous blogs I was hoping to have everything wrapped up with this home loan before heading down to San Diego... well with Bank of America's track record my hopes were not high so I wasn't really surprised that I haven't heard a thing about the loan all week. Email and phone calls go un-answered. I'm beyond frustrated and upset, I'm at a lose of what do to next.. all I can hope for is everything is approved by Friday as we are set to close the following Wednesday. Wish us luck...

Comic Con Prep

Spent the day making sure I was ready for comic con, printed out my agenda, got all the KOTG swag together and ready to go. Mapped out everything, got phone numbers of Guildies that I'm suppose to met up with. Confirmed my hotel reservation, got money out of the bank, gassed up the jeep and I think I'm ready to drive down to San Diego for a crazy five days of geek heaven.

Headshots

At the request of some of our fans of Knights of the Guild Jenni and I thought it would be fun to do some "official" pictures for our show. Today I am picking up one of those pictures that we turned into a headshot so we could sign it and Comic Con. I think they turned out pretty good.

Final Home Inspection

Today we had our final home inspection. This is our last look at the house to make sure they fixed anything that we requested them to fix. It was a full house, seller's were there, seller's agent, her husband, our Realtor, two HUD engineers and a internet guy.

We first had the engineers look at the foundation and get a seal of approval that it was certified, the two guys walked around a few minutes and then said it's good. (cost us $400 for them to do that) but it was needed by the lender so it had to be done.

After that we spoke with the internet guy as this company uses our land for their relay station so send wifi to the valley below. He wanted to make sure we were cool with the set up as it does sit on our land and use our electricity. In return you get free wifi, which may sound good but he said that it's not as fast as Cable or DSL but faster then Dial up. Which I didn't like the sound of that, but that is something will have to deal with.

After all that we did our final walk through and inspected every room and made sure they fixed the few things we had asked them to fix. Everything looked fine so I signed the final home inspection report... now we just wait for the lender to approve the loan.. I hope it's done by Tuesday as I'm heading out to Comic Con on Wednesday.. I'll keep you posted.