Comic Con 2013: The Thursday Edition

The Hard Rock Cafe, as seen from outside the convention center.

Thursday ended up as kind of mixed bag of experiences. Erin and I volunteered in the morning, a Comic Con first for both of us! We worked in Artist’s Alley, which I’ve never really looked at before, so it was a double first! Mainly all I did was walk up and down the rows of artwork, helped an artist put up some of his artwork, and guard an exit. Super exciting stuff. After a very long 4 hours, it was over, and we went back to the condo for lunch.

In the afternoon, my mom, aunt, and bff went off to explore the Gaslamp District, the area in front of the convention center that is full of hotels and condos, restaurants and bars, and companies both large and small trying to market their products to passers-by. It’s gotten so extensive in recent years that it’s almost a whole separate experience outside of, though still complementary to, Comic Con. Sega, for instance, had a whole gaming experience set up, where you could try out all of their new games in the comfort of their air conditioned arcade. (Nintendo had a similar thing in the hotel next to the convention center.)

HBO went full throttle with their Game of Thrones experience there. There were artists that would sketch your portrait into. They had areas where you could try out their new X-Box and Facebook games, and check out their Funko Pop exclusives, like this headless Ned Stark. You could also get a shirt customized with your name, which I thought was the coolest part!

The one panel I went to on this day was about a documentary called I Know That Voice, made by John DiMaggio (more commonly known as the voice of Bender from Futurama, and Jake from Adventure Time). Tom Kenny, Rob Paulsen, and other actors whose voices but not faces you would know were on the panel, talking about the doc. They talked about how voice acting is not taken seriously by some, as though it's not 'real' acting, but rather something they do until they become a real actor, like being a waiter.

Comic Con 2013: Critter Dropping

A couple weeks before Comic Con, I read about this woman, called the Geeky Hooker, who crochets these little amigurumi creatures and hides them around Comic Con and leaves clues to their location. The critters were adorable, and a treasure hunt of sorts sounded fun, so Erin and I decided to look for the critter drops as often as we could during during the Con.

The first drop happened on Preview Night -  an adorable little crocheted Hulk. As soon as I got the notification from her Twitter that there was a drop, we ran over there. She posted what I thought was just a picture (later I realized it was actually a video, which would have made it a bit easier!)  So we ran down to the lobby she said it was in, and used powers of deduction - “it looks he’s on a black table, behind a white stand” - to figure out his location. By the time we got there, someone had already snatched him up! It was so much fun trying to hunt him down that we decided we definitely had to make this a priority.

There he is!!!

The next day, there was an update that said she was scouting a location around Lobby F and G. We went down there to wait until she posted a video of the location. As we were waiting, I walked over to a nearby stand to grab an updated guide. A woman was already standing there, and as she walked away, I looked down and realized it must have the Geeky Hooker, because she had left a 1-Up Mushroom right there!! I immediately snatched him up and held him aloft, Lion King-style. Like 10 seconds later, someone else came up looking for him, and then more and more people starting running up, frantically looking around. I was shocked that there were so many people also doing this search, and by how quickly they showed up!

Taking a seat in Hall H!

We missed out on the next few, but for one of the last ones, a Totoro one, we were stuck in a line. It was so unfortunate, because that drop was actually right near our condo. My mom and aunt had just gone back there, so I texted and asked if they’d be willing to go look. They sprinted over to the location and started searching through the trees, along with some other con-goers/critter hunters. My mom found a discarded gray sock on the ground and actually grabbed it, thinking it was the critter! We later went back to the same place and the sock was still there. It was the exact same shade as a Totoro, so she wasn’t far off, I guess!

The critter drops ended up being one of the highlights of my Comic Con. Not only is my 1-Up Mushroom super cute, but the hunt itself was a ton of fun! I can’t wait for next year’s!

Comic Con 2013, Part the First

Okay, rather than make a huge long post about all the Comic Con goodness, I’m going to spread it out and write about one day each day. Starting with Wednesday:

View from the balcony of our beautiful condo.

Actually, okay, starting with Tuesday night because that’s when I got to San Diego, and that’s when Comic Con officially starts, when you enter San Diego. In hindsight, I should have taken a half day at work, because it would have been a lot nicer to drive during the daylight hours. Instead, I left at 5 as usual, and left my apartment at 7:30. I had to take 4 loads of stuff down to the car, that’s part of why it took so long to get going. With a quick stop to drop off my bunny, I ended up getting to San Diego around 10:45. We (meaning me, my mom, my aunt, my best friend, and my boyfriend) rented a condo in the Gaslamp District, just a couple blocks from the convention center. I can’t stress enough how nice it is when the convention center is just a couple minutes away, rather than having to worry about waiting for a bus or train!! Not to mention, it’s nice to be able to go back to the condo for lunch, or to take a quick breather away from the crowds.

On Wednesday morning, my mom and my aunt and I went to pick up my bff Erin from the airport. Shortly after that, we took a several mile trek to the Town & Country hotel to get our badges. As there is no rest for the wicked, we then immediately went over to the convention center to sign up for our volunteer time. We strolled into Preview Night a short time after it had already started. It was, as usual, packed like a sardine can. Some highlights of Preview Night include:

• This super cute Lego Yoda:

• The Big Bang Theory artwork area:

• This super happy Hulk I bought:

• Also, something called a Critter Drop, which warrants a whole separate post!

We didn't stay until the end of the night (9pm!) like we were planning because walking that whole exhibit hall area is probably the equivalent of like 5 miles. At least 5. And it was SO crowded, which is to be expected, of course, but that doesn't make it less exhausting! Also? There's no real way to prepare for that. You can walk a bunch to get in shape, wear comfortable shoes, but you just can't experience the crush of 25,000 people in very many other places.

Animal Crossing!

I’m SO completely addicted to my new Nintendo 3DS game, Animal Crossing. OMG I love it so much and I’ve been playing it nonstop since I got it.

I’ve played two previous iterations of this game: Wild World on my old Nintendo DS, and City Folk on my Wii. This new version is definitely the best yet. The graphics alone are so beautiful, much more sharp and detailed than any of the others. Some of the gameplay is the same, but there are new elements, such as the public works ordinances, which allow you to choose projects to build around town, some of which are functional and some of which are just aesthetic. Also, there’s a new store called Re-Tail, which serves the same function as Tom Nook’s store in previous games, where you can sell your items to the owners of the store, as well as put them up in a flea-market space.

There are tons of ongoing things to do, like catching bugs, fishing, planting trees and flowers, digging for fossils, swimming in the ocean, doing favors for villagers, decorating your house, customizing your furniture. There’s so much to do, you can’t even get bored. The possibilities really are endless.

RIP Google Reader

See you in hell, Google Reader. I really don’t understand why Google had to kill it, I truly don’t. I also don’t know why more people don’t utilize RSS readers. How do you keep up with all your blogs??

Well, in a post-Google Reader world, Feedly is my new go-to for an RSS reader. I checked out Feedly shortly after Google announced they would be shuttering Google Reader, and wasn’t really impressed. However, about a week or so ago, I checked it out again, and I actually really liked it. There’s a lot of customizable options, so that I can see either the full blog posting, a picture and a partial paragraph, or just a headline, and I can change it for each blog I’m subscribed to, which is seriously amazing. GR didn’t have that kind of awesomeness. So for some blogs that I really just want to skim through the headlines to see if there’s anything worth reading, I just have the headlines viewable, and for others, I have the ‘Magazine View’, which I find not only helpful, but also aesthetically pleasing. I also like how the blogs with updates are the only ones shown on the sidebar (though you can hit 'see more' to see the rest).

I think things are going to be okay after all, thanks to Feedly.

Um, BTW, this wasn’t a sponsored post or anything. I just really dig Feedly.

Girls on HBO

I binge-watched both seasons of Girls this weekend. I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it, because I didn’t really like Lena Dunham’s film Tiny Furniture, and since Girls was purportedly similar, I didn’t have my hopes up. But... I ended up loving it!! It’s more relatable than I thought it would be. I’m not a New York girl in my early twenties... an LA girl in her late twenties is a slightly different animal altogether! But as I watched, I found myself almost cringing at how some things hit home for me, hard.

Not knowing what you're doing with your life, trying to navigate confusing interpersonal relationships - I guess these things are all pretty universal to people in their 20s. Maybe 30s too.

Also, Shoshanna seems like she should be super annoying to me, but I found her hilarious:

“Do you know that part on your resume where they ask if you have any special skills? Well, it’s the thing where they ask you to list like, ‘yoga, Spanish, water skiing, Photoshop.’ I feel like I don’t I have any special skills."

Twitter Oddities

There’s a surprising amount of Twitter accounts dedicated to replying to tweets about movies. When I tweeted that I saw a screening of Robocop, I got a reply from Bixby Snyder (@for_a_dollar) that said “I’d buy that for a dollar!” And when I posted that we were seeing Beetlejuice (at an Oscars Outdoors screening), I got a tweet from @Betelgeuse_3 that said “IT’S SHOWTIME!”

Checking out each account shows that is literally all these accounts do. When someone tweets “Beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice” (which is actually what I posted), that account replies, 99% of the time, “IT’S SHOWTIME!” How random!!!! I wonder what other accounts there are out there that do similar things!

Link Love

Check out this map of Westeros. - It's so intricate!


30 Signs You're Almost 30 - .... sigh. These are so true.


I'm really liking this Pixar Theory. It stretches a bit to make everything fit in the same universe, but it's interesting nonetheless.


The Most Important Bunny Gifs on the Internet - Essential viewing.

Link Love

How the Planets Would Look If They Were As Close as the Moon - I love anything space related, and this is a pretty awesome, and really incredibly unique look at perspective. The ones with the bigger planets looked amazing.


Here Is Today - I love this. Another perspective changing tool, this time with time!


7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy - A pretty insightful look at kid stars, by Mara Wilson, aka Matilda. I think she pretty much hits the nail on the head.


30 Things Only Drivers in LA Will Understand - I agree with literally basically all of these.


50 Greatest Joss Whedon Moments - ONLY 50?

Link Love

Disneyland Then Vs. Now - I love me some Disneyland memorabilia. It's pretty cool to see how much Disneyland hasn't yet has changed.

Bunnies. What can't they do? 

The Typical Day of a Teenage Girl in the Late 90s - Okay, who followed me around and wrote this about me?!?

Otter in a Tutu. OTTER IN A TUTU.

What Made The OC Great - Now I really want to rewatch The OC.