[436] Threat Assessment

console

< Seraphim >

"smiling a lot"

Monday - July 14, 2003

Piro and I are - and have been - getting ready for San Diego Comic-Con. I had the crazy idea that we should have books for sale while we are at the booth nine hours for 5 days. Hey, we were going to there anyways right? Somehow that snowballed into shirts and posters too. The apartment has been a pseudo warehouse for weeks.

Frankly, we have no idea what we are doing. Usually we just show up somewhere and I try to smile a lot and look like I know what's going on and we planned it that way all along. Our longest signing was six hours and we were pretty much the walking undead by the end. This is going to last 2 hours longer everyday for 4 days with a panel on Sunday. Two months ago this all sounded like great fun. I was obviously a raving lunatic at the time I agreed to this. I've got giant, killer butterflies in my stomach. There is a fine line between excitement and mania.

What I am really curious about is our combined trash pickup and water bill. So this month we are going to be gone for one week. A fourth of the month. Anyone want to place odds on if our bill will be one quarter smaller. Even a fraction smaller. I'm sure we are also paying for them to fill the pool which we don't have time to use and water the grass which I don't care a crap about either.

That fee just ticks me off. It has nothing to do with your actual water consumption or trash production. We are very conscientious about recycling and conservation. We have eco-friendly appliances and we sort and lug plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, Styrofoam and even useless computer parts to the local recycling center. We take our one weekly trash bag to the dumpster and our fellow community members are throwing away couches and half their apartments. It so makes me want to be wasteful just because they are ripping me off.

If you are going to SDCC stop by and see us at booth 4705. Check Piro's rant for links and additional info. I recommend coming Thursday or Friday before we totally have lost our tenuous grip on sanity.

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[start piro transmission]

oi, Piro here. It seems I got bumped by Dom and Seraphim, but that's ok - I just wanted to convey some specific information regarding our appearance at San Diego Comic Con.

First off, and this is important, they DID give us the wrong booth number initially - the Megatokyo / Real Life Comics Booth number is 4705 - it is right across from the Central Park Media booth on the east side of the convention hall. This is the same side of the hall as the Artists Alley. We're near the doors at the front of the hall, we shouldn't be too hard to find.

Like Seraphim said, we've lost our heads and are actually selling stuff ourselves - I have to tell you, I have so much more respect for retailers after going thru this, especially retailers that have to travel from show to show. ^^;; We'll have shirts, some of which are a little unique (I have a white version of the 'evil l33t' tshirt, for example), Posters (Broken Miho, Ph34r the cute ones, and a limited number of Pirogoeth and Capture the Bear), and even some Megatokyo books. We had to ship this stuff out there (special thanks to Greg and Liz who will be driving the stuff down to the show for us ^_^) so please stop by and pick up a shirt or a poster. The less I have to lug home on the plane, the better :)

Also note that Greg from Real Life Comics will have his own t-shirts available for purchase at the booth, and they look pretty sweet (plans to steal one...)

Oh, and Greg has put together this neat little guide on where to find us :) Plus a picture of Greg himself, so you can have something to visually ID the booth by ^^;;

Other than that, I plan to spend as much time as I can sitting at the booth doing my usual sign and draw stuff for anyone who asks. This does bring up one small issue that I want everyone to take into consideration who might show up at the booth. Usually, there is like this big line of people waiting for me to draw stuff for them (it is only large because I am so slow) - we can't really do that at this show - I'll do my absolute best to take care of everyone, but try to make sure that we don't cause any problems for the booths around us. Seraphim and I will be there Thursday right thru Sunday, so we hope we can take care of everyone.

The only other thing to note is that there will be a Megatokyo panel at San Diego Comic Con! It's on Sunday, from 11:30 to 12:30 in room 18. Dom, Seraphim and myself will do our normal panel thing, and try to answer as many questions as we can.

Also, if you are going, be sure to check out Penny Arcade's booth - I don't know exactly where they are going to be, but be sure to drop by and throw things at them. Just at Tycho and Gabe - be nice to the girls, ok? ^_^

I've never been to SDCC before, so I'm a tad nervous about it, I mean, there are gonna be a LOT of really talented people there, so I'm feeling very much like an upstart who doesn't belong ^^;; Regardless, it should be a lot of fun, and if you are going, be sure to stop by the booth and say hi.

piro

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< Dom >

"Back in the saddle"

Sunday - July 13, 2003

[Dom] - 23:00:00 - [link here]

So after going to a wedding and a farewell party on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I woke up around noon Sunday to the shocking realization that it was perhaps my first free day in about two and a half months. Ever since shortly before E3/ACen, I haven't really had a day to myself, and I celebrated today by doing a whole lot of nothing. It was glorious.

I watched Hero with friends, which was nice, not just for the movie (which is great from a cinematographic and artistic perspective) but for the fact that I was able to lie down and just shoot the breeze with people for a while. Especially during that ultra-phallic fight scene in the lake (Maggie Cheung lake water money shot, banzai!). It was also nice having a lotta Chinese people around to explain the other parts of the Warring States background. I may have to brush up on Warring States legends after that movie...

Then, I got around to what people have been telling me to do for a good three years--playing and finishing off Skies of Arcadia. I like the game, especially once the encounter rate goes down. But I'm sorely disappointed by the lack of a "Vyse the Pimp Daddy" title, because I honestly think it's a more appropriate title than Vyse, King of Rogues.

(note: I think I inherited some of Largo's Bioware-love when I inherited this space... so be warned) The next game on my "must play" list is Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic. When I saw it at E3, I fell in love immediately, because it was Star Wars video gaming the way it should be--a little cheesy, but with good camera angles, action, and nicely hokey/fun dialogue. A Bioware guy promised me a free copy when I was there, but I'm wondering if I should buy the game anyway and pad its sales numbers...

In other news, I didn't get around to playing my shiny new copy of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, because my friend pointed me out to Rimu Revolution, a Japanese webcomic. It's the heartwarming story of a magical(?) girl who wakes up and decides to take over the world, and I find it evil and wrong, which therefore means that I love it. Seeing that I had neglected my poor oop-ack and the Pretty Face translations for far too long, I decided that it'd be a nice, easy way to start translating something if I worked on Rimu Revolution, so... there it is, on oop-ack, the first new content in three months.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it, Hodge-Podge is putting up an MT/Webcomic Cosplay Archive on oop-ack, much like the MT fanart archive. You should e-mail him if there's anything you want to see, since we're sort of at a loss on how to organize it, since cosplay is much more naturally divided by date than subject.

So it turns out that I'll be arriving at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday or so, which makes me thankful because I miss much less work than I would have otherwise. Cons sure suck on the work schedule, except when they count as work, in which case they suck even more because you can't spend much time enjoying yourself.

But enough bellyaching! I'll be hanging out with Fred, Sarah and Greg at the booth on Saturday and Sunday, with maybe Friday if I can make it in time. I've never been to SDCC before, but I figure it won't be too different from everything I've seen so far... mostly because I'll be seeing most of it from behind a table. But who knows, right?