inCONceivable

So I promised this post would be almost interesting, and I suppose I will try to deliver on that. This requires me to have done something interesting to write about, which of course would be completely out of character for me. However, shockingly enough I did something almost worth writing about...I went to the San Diego Comic-Con last weekend.

Four of us from the physics REU program drove down to San Diego (like a 2.5 hr drive) and attended this large sci-fi convention for 2 out of the 4 days it is open. Now I'd been to a couple Star Trek conventions before back in the Tri-Cities, which were fun, but are in no way comparable to the awesomeness of a large convention such as Comic-Con. Basically there is stuff there for almost everyone, ranging from cult sci-fi to mainstream stuff (such as Star Wars and new movies like Snakes on a Plane for example) to anime to the latest in gaming. The bottom floor of the San Diego convention center was filled with booths selling merchandise, demoing new products, and promoting whatever they felt like. TV stations, gaming companies, comic book stores, artists, just lots and lots of stuff going on. Upstairs they had various seminar-type setups on topics ranging from how to create RPGs to the latest developments in the Star Wars franchise. Essentially, it is a heaven for nerds to go to when they die. And there were a lot of them there too, people dressed up in very elaborate costumes (no, I wasn't wearing my Vulcan ears...I forgot to bring them to LA with me). They had to turn people away on Saturday they were so busy, it was absolutely packed in there.

Anyway, the Comic-Con sounds like a wonderful opportunity to do stuff. But I wouldn't want to really be interesting, so I figured out a way to make this so nerdy that it will no longer be interesting. One of the other highlights of these sort of conventions is the celebrities they bring in to sign autographs. So I spent a considerable amount of time at Comic-Con trying to get autographs from various Star Trek actors. In the end, I got autographs from Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), and John de Lancie (Q). It was really weird because John de Lancie is actually one of the few Trek actors I'd seen before, they brought him into the Tri-Cities over a decade ago for a convention. I had to pass up getting autographs from a few other actors because I was lazy, or more likely I was too poor and didn't have enough money, such as DS9's Chase Masterson (Leeta) and Star Wars' Carrie Fisher (Leia). Anyway, the convention was a lot of fun, and I actually got to do a lot of stuff besides stalk Trek actors, but I'm not going to talk forever about it.

Right now I'm actually supposed to be in Northern California on a camping trip, but I didn't feel very much like going yesterday morning when they left and I sort of went back to sleep instead of going with them. So I hope they won't be too mad at me when they get back tomorrow evening, since I didn't really tell them I wasn't going. But I can't say I'm that upset about not going - hiking and camping in 100 degree weather is not really something that I am well suited for. Not to mention the 6 hour car trip to get there. Anyway, I suppose they won't kill me for not going. However, they might torture me forever, so if I don't post again for a long time, now you'll know why.