Things I learned at San Diego Comic-Con 2011

Here we go!

1. I am predictable. Year after year, my favorite cosplay will be based on some silly video game that has eaten up entirely too much of my time...still, love it!




2. You know that fantasy every adult has had about rolling around in a big pile of money? Kids have it too, only with a slight variation.




3. If you head on down to South Park you will, in fact, have yourself a time.




4. Princess Leia will cut a bitch. Moments after this photo was taken, the middle Princess Leia in the gold bikini (PLITGB) "accidentally" smacked the blond PLITGB upside the face with a plastic Jabba the Hut. Seriously. You can't make this shit up. (side note, I am completely unable to mask my loud laughter at such an occurrence no matter how inappropriate or how close I am standing the involved PLITGB's)




5. Nerds are industrious. I don't care how sunny it is. When the urge strikes and they need to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica, they find a way.




6. I want to believe their parents were being ironic when deciding to dress their cute little girls up as red shirts and not that they just liked the red. So wrong!




7. Fezzes are cool. So are bow ties. If you don't know why, you don't deserve to know why.




8. Everyone has a karaoke song that resonates for them deep down. For this guy, it was the "Finger Bang" song from South Park. I really don't want to think any further about that.




9. Nicholas Brenden is not aging well.




10. Initiating a new generation of Comic-Con attendees is awesome.




Don't mind me, I'll just be over here in the corner sleeping for a week until I am ready to start hunting tickets for 2012. The rest of the photos for the day can be found here.

Things I learned at San Diego Comic-Con 2010

Another great year, another Con post. Here is what I learned this year:

1. Val Kilmer's career is heading in the wrong direction. It's never good to be the saddest looking flyer on the table.




2. I have mad love for anyone who grabs 4 of their buddies and spends the day wandering the floor like this:




3. Cat Woman will flirt with anyone. Sorry Seth.




4. I am surprisingly more tolerant of someone coming dressed as Sarah Palin then as Snookie. I might have been a tad too snarky to "Snookie". Sorry "Snookie".




5. We've come a long way baby. Princess Leia's spotted in gold bikinis = 1. Gladiator guys spotted in male equivalent gold bikinis = 3. The times they are a changin.




6. Little orange price stickers do not make this family friendly.




7. Forget the bad boys...I'll take a snarky comic any day. Watching Scott Adsit from "30 Rock" trade fanboy love with the entire cast of "Community" was a total highlight!




8. Designing your toy to have interchangeable heads may sound cool on paper, but when it gets into the packaging it's just creepy.




9. Someone finally got smart and created the best both swag ever. Those of us stuck in line with the unwashed masses, thank you.




10. Stan Lee is the "Brad Pitt" of the Comic-Con world...complete with entourage, massive security and huge crowds trying to get his attention. I love that when he came through the lobby, everyone gasped and knew exactly who he was.




11. Pink tulle Vader robe, check. Sparkly mask with tiara, check. Mini light-saber, check. It is a miracle that I didn't stick her in my massive SyFy bag and take her home with me.




Another year survived, already looking forward to 2011....Cheers!

I don't want to jinx it but...

I hear that Obama has spent the day making phone calls to the folks that haven't been selected for Vice President.

All I'm saying is I haven't gotten any calls yet today...

Things I learned at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con

1. Running into Joss Whedon on the convention floor will reduce me to a stammering dork.




2. The cast and crew of Dr. Horrible are as much fun to watch in real life as they were in the show. I bet they would be a blast to go drinking with.




3. I feel sorry for Eric Estrada... but in a sadistic, mocking, entertaining way.



To be fair, there was a line of people waiting for him just outside of the frame. The image of Eric Estrada standing behind an autograph table in front of many empty rows makes me giggle, though...so there you go.

But I want to know now!

Dear Democracy,

Thanks for making an appearance this year, it has been great to see you. It has really been a lovely primary season. It was very thoughtful of you to make me feel like my vote counts for something this time around.

The in-depth debate of the issues has been fun and I have appreciated getting to have a choice of candidates instead of just feeling stuck with one of them.

The thing is, I'm afraid you have started to overstay your welcome. I know I've always said I wanted my vote to count, but I didn't really expect it to be quite so messy. I heard someone talking about how you might stick around until the Democratic National Convention...in August! Sorry but that is just not going to work for me.

I know that we designed the system to work this way and all, but we really never believed you would last this long. Let just say that you do actually stay until August and we go into the Convention without a nominee. If you have the candidates up front giving serious issue speeches on the economy and war, when will we get to drop the balloons?

Please don't be offended, maybe we can work something out. I heard someone kicking a Super Delegate Primary idea around for June. Perhaps you could come back for a weekend visit then. Now granted, the idea seems a little odd since that is kind of what the Convention in August is for but while we may call it a convention, we really just go to party. We didn't plan to do any real work there.

Besides, if you stick around all Summer we won't have any room for a last minute media obsession about whether China should be hosting the Olympics. You wouldn't want to spoil our fun would you?

Thanks for understanding,

America


P.S. What's that? You really aren't leaving? Crap.

Who do you think you are demanding our attention for months on end? Britney Spears?!

It's Funny 'cause it's a Little True

Clever post by Sean Carmen of 23/6

Democratic Primaries Threatened by Outbreak of Democracy

Democratic party leaders voiced concern today about the Democratic primary process, which they said was "gravely threatened" by recent developments.

Speaking on background, party leaders said those developments included a close contest that might not be decided until the convention this summer and that, in the meantime, threatened to ignite vast public interest in the campaign, drive record numbers of voters to the polls, and produce the most inclusive Democratic primary contest in a generation.

"It's a complete disaster," one party insider said. "Absolutely the last thing we wanted."

Party leaders said they had hoped their nominee would be selected in the first few primaries, thereby making the primaries a carefully scripted marketing campaign leading up to a televised coronation of the nominee at the summer convention.

"We wanted Iowa and New Hampshire to decide this thing," one party operative said. "Maybe Michigan and Nevada, if it had to come to that.

"Yes, we scheduled primaries in every state," this source said, "but we didn't expect they would actually count for anything."

Even more worrisome, party insiders confided, is the prospect that the establishment candidate will not win the nomination, but will instead be defeated by a challenger on the basis of, of all things, the popular vote in the 50 states.

"We thought we had protections in place to prevent the Democratic candidate from being selected democratically," one party official said. "But it's all going terribly wrong."

...Read the rest

I don't know what to believe in anymore

I was cooking dinner the other night - rice with a honey vinager sauce, some steamed vegetables...a normal dinner around my house. As I was making the sauce I noticed a fly circling the kitchen and occasionaly making a dive for the vinegar. It struck me as strange given that there was honey out as well, but that fly just kept going for the vinegar.

I though for a moment and then did what anyone would have done in the situation. I put out one bowl of honey, another bowl of vinegar and left town for the weekend. What's that you say? You don't know anyone who would do that? Now you're just messing with my head.

So I returned home tonight and to my surprise I found three little flies floating atop of my bowl of balsamic vinigar and an untouched bowl of honey.

There you have it...You catch more flies with vinegar than you do with honey.

Now I suppose you are going to tell me that you don't know anyone who would have taken a picture and blogged about it either. Yeah right.

Happy Reusable Bag Day

I spotted this while I was Christmas shopping tonight. Maybe I'm just out of step with how the kids are spelling "bag" these days.

Bless Macy's for trying...at least all of the "bog" money was going to Heal the Bay.

Why Web News Should Never Fully Replace Newspapers

I have this nifty little news widget on my Yahoo page that constantly updates with interesting news stories. I laughed out loud when I opened it up this morning.



I can honestly say that I have never actually wondered why pregnant women don't randomly topple over. Have you?

Are you kidding me???

The last thing we want is to pay $.05 more for a can of soup at Walmart...and for what? Just so it isn't poisoned! What are we thinking?

Comic Con

I don't think I've ever seen as many people at the same place at the same time. This is insane.


For the rest of the pictures of the day, visit the Flickr Set.

The Beginning of the End

I'm off to read until my eyes cross.

WooHoo

Tell me you don't have the theme song for the Simpsons running through your head right about now. I know you do...at least you do now!

The movie is a week away and the marketing push is in full swing. One of the elusive Kwik-E-Mart 7-11's is right by my office and I am such a geek that I have no shame admitting how cool I think that is. I finally stopped by today to take a few pictures.





There was quite a line outside, in fact there has been every time I've driven by. That's why it's taken me until now to stop.

I always get a kick out of Simpson's humor which is why these were my favorite touches from the inside:





There was also a little art on the side wall for folks who were paying attention.



There were all out of Krustee-O's so I may have to stop by a few more times to try and luck into some before it transforms back into a 7-11.

You can check out the rest of the pictures in my Flickr album.

No More Paris

This news anchor absolutely embodies how I feel about all of the coverage of this story. I love this...

How Many Do You Count

This is very tricky. Give it a try and let me know how you did.

Where was THIS guy?

A previously unreleased video made during the Gore/Bush campaign "found" its way to the internet. It's an interesting watch if you haven't seen it yet. Take a look:

Part 1


Part 2


Now, I'm not naive enough to believe this innocently became public. Gore can claim he is never running again all he wants, but his well orchestrated media blitz of late is paving a brilliant path that may allow him to be "dragged" back into the political spotlight in a few years. He should stand back and let the early democratic front runners beat each other up for a while. When the public begins desparately looking for someone they can look to on the left he is well positioned to reappear out of a sense of duty. At this point, I'm not sure I would be opposed to a scenario like that.

Despite any motivations behind releasing a video clip like this, it raises the obvious question of how different things might be today if the personality in the video had shown up for the campaign. Perhaps it would have looked like this:

Don't Be Late for Adam

I'm not quite sure why I enjoyed this so much but I did. Crooks and Liars has an audio clip from the Adam Carolla Show of Adam hanging up on a very snotty Ann Coulter.

Give it a listen.

Mrs. World 2006...Take 2

I don't know what is the funniest part of this video. Could it be:

a. When they crowned the wrong person.

b. When the stage manager yells at the idiot who crowned the wrong person.

c. The outraged reactions of the other contestants. "This is not a reality show!"

d. The poor kid that they dangle from the ceiling to deliver the crown.

e. Mrs. Russia pretending to be surprised when they announce her as the winner during the 2nd take.

f. Mrs. Russia dancing around the stage after she gets the crown.

g. That the credits list the choreographers as Frit and Frat Fuller...I'm serious watch the whole clip.

I wish I had watched this thing when it aired.

Who Knew???

How did I miss what a cool chick the singer Pink is? Maybe I just dismissed her as too "overmarketed pop"* for my tastes. I started to think twice when I saw her "Stupid Girls" video...very funny if you're the type of person who get's sad when little girls emulate Paris Hilton. When I stumbled across this video clip this morning, I became an instant fan:



A quick Google shows that the version on the album was recorded with the Indigo Girls...I love them. I am soooo buying this album.


* I may mock pop music but my confession is that there is a certain Kelly Clarkson song that seems to rise to the top of my current playlist lately when I'm alone in my car and in the mood to sing really loud. Shhhhhhh...don't tell anyone. It's one of my dirtly little secrets.