that movie screening I saw at Comic-Con...

Shoot 'Em Up  (2007)  B

I was able to attend the world premiere of "Shoot 'Em Up," and wow was I
surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I went in thinking that it was just going to be another average gun exploitation dumb film, and it did turn out to be another gun exploitation dumb film except that it was hardly average. When you see this film, leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the ride, because it's really something like 10% plot and 90% action. The plot is really just there to setup the next action sequence, and it's no different than a lot of martial arts movies where it's kinda the same thing.

The biggest draw and the main fun you'll have with this film is how inventive the gun play is. There's a lot of "I can't believe he just did that" to "no way, did you just see what he did" to "you've got to be kidding me" moments here. There's actual real choreography to the gun action and it is incredible.  Michael Davis, the director/writer of this film, clearly set out the goal to make the coolest gun action in films, and it's hard to argue that after watching this film. Clive Owen plays one of the most bad ass characters he's ever done, and he's almost like an unbeatable guy here. Which comes to the only problem I have with this film, "the A-Team syndrome," where the bad guys just can't seem to hit the good guy. Oddly enough, there was some one sentence explanation to why that is, but it still is a huge leap of faith on screen. Paul Giamatti plays the main antagonist to our protagonist, and he too is a pretty bad ass guy, and is also pretty funny here giving us some comedic relief.

If you like gun action, this is the movie for you. Shoot 'em Up completely lives up to it's title, and it's absolutely one of the most fun I've had in the movies this year.

- Sunday + Overall re-cap - San Diego Comic-Con -

Started off Sunday a lot more relaxed, maybe a little too relaxed. I woke up late and didn't show up in time for the complimentary breakfast. I decided to take that time to pack up my belongings to my car (it took at least two trips), and checked out from the hotel. I didn't arrive at the Comic-Con until at least 11AM, which is different than the past days where I would be there before the doors open. It didn't matter though, this was suppose to be a more calmer day.

I took this day as my opportunity to finally do my full walk through of the exhibit hall / dealer's room. Lined up for a few booth SWAG (stuff we all get), even bought a rare anime DVD that I've been looking for a long time. I also saw a classic icon; Sargeant Slaughter, and even Birds of Prey / Jericho star Ashley Scott. Then there's the usual unusual sightings at Comic-Con, like an actual real life one legged go-go dancer promoting the upcoming Grindhouse DVDS, or an almost naked man interviewing attendees. Ofcourse I took as many photos of cosplayers as they come by, although I never did get that action pose I wanted to take with Lisa's newest costume (there's always next year). Oddly and almost too appropriate too was that the very last cosplayer I took a picture of, was apparently a stripper handing out some complimentary entry tickets for the strip club she works at. I left the Comic-Con over half an hour before it officially ended, but it didn't matter. Here I am back home and it seemed like it was just a passing dream that had to end.

There it was, the last day of the San Diego Comic-Con. Once again another successful year, with tons of things going on. Too much stuff going on actually that unless I could split myself into multiple persons, I couldn't possibly be able to do everything I wanted to do. The experience is almost always different each year, and although I've been going to this for more than a decade now, I'm still learning new things when I go to the Comic-Con and Downtown San Diego itself.

Get a hotel and get it reserved early. Commuting there is a pain, since there are too many people gathering there for the big event. This year it didn't even help that the first season 7 American Idol tryouts are on Monday, July 30, which just adds to the crowd. If you can't help but commute, then it's highly suggested to get there as early as 6AM-8AM to get parking.

When driving in downtown San Diego, pay attention to the road and don't stare too much at the crowd of people looking for half naked cosplayers. When I was waiting at the intersection to cross the street, somebody actually rear ended a stopped car in front of him. Needless to say, "what an idiot."

An alternative to get around the city are those man powered bike cart shuttles. What I found amusing is that there's about three to five of those shuttle services driven by hot looking girls. Needless to say, even though it's easy to walk to your destination, as a guy it can be absolutely tempting to get one of those girls give me a ride.

My hotel was located next to the "Gaslamp district," which is the designated area of downtown San Diego with the most bars. Well past midnight, you'll still see men and women alike, walking from bar to bar, dressed to look good, just out having a good time, hoping to possibly get laid. Pretty cool area.

Speaking of the city, I honestly could get used to living in that kind of environment, as opposed to the suburban life I live at right now. A city atmosphere has this very hustle bustle adventurous feeling to it, at least that's how it feels like to me. Another way I see it is that it's like actually living in a huge shopping mall, because I can imagine just walking around to shop and eat and then go back home; which would be located just a block away.

I hate those huge marketing bags that the booths hand out to people. Do you really want to lug around a bag that's practically 4ft x 4ft huge, walking in shoulder to shoulder traffic, through a crowd that's over 100,000 people huge? I know I don't.

If you are in a really long line for something, make sure you don't break it. You leave that gap in front of you, and you'll find people easily cutting in line. I know I've done it once, and I've seen others done it as well.

2007 was the first year that registration was completely sold out for all the days, single days, and the special three days passes. It's unbelievable how popular Comic-Con has gotten, and it's primarily due to the huge presence of the movie and TV studios representing themselves.

p.s. For those of you with an xbox360, check out the xbox live marketplace that actually has coverage on Comic-Con (like a full video of the Warner Bros panel)

- Saturday re-cap - San Diego Comic-Con -

Panels, Panels, Panels, and the Masquerade. That's the theme for today, and I pretty much just stayed upstairs at the panel rooms from 10AM to 7:45PM. I did not once step foot in the exhibit hall / dealer's room this day, but I should make up for it Sunday. The plan for the day was to stick with three areas, "Ballroom 20," "Room 6CDEF," and the photopass area outside the Masquerade ball.

First up in Ballroom 20 for me was the world premiere of the "Bionic Woman" pilot episode. This is the updated version from the classic 1970's TV series, and it feels quite a bit more like the show "Alias" than anything else. It was a fine pilot, except it just didn't keep my interest as much as I was thinking it should have. The panel did have stars of the show present including the new Bionic Woman herself; Michelle Ryan.

Following that in the same room is the "TV Guide Hot List," which included people representing several different shows like the 4400, Jericho, Kyle XY, the Bionic Woman, and Heroes. This honestly wasn't that interesting of a panel except for the fact you've got people like Skeet Ulrich and Masi Oka in the panel. The problem is that the TV Guide moderator just doesn't "get" Comic-Con panels. The guy kept asking the guest stars questions that are more apt for a one on one interview, as opposed to something we attendees at the comic-con would really want to hear. Bbooorrriiinnggg. There was some levity coming from Masi Oka and Tim Kring representing Heroes, and I was honestly surprised that when the Q&A finally started, most of the questions were for the star of Kyle XY.

The next panel was the one that most of us were waiting for; putting up with that TV Guide thing, just to guarantee our being present for the Heroes presentation. This was an enjoyable panel brought primarily by the very humorous cast from Heroes, from Greg Grunberg, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, to Adrian Pasdar. They showed us clips from the show, and some of the extras found in NBC.com. The big deal however was the spoiler clips they showed us for Season 2, which they told us not to tell people what they are. I'll respect their wish, but I'm sure you'll end up seeing those spoilers online somewhere. Now the bigger deal for me is that they got Kevin Smith to write an episode of the Heroes anthology show.

That's it for Ballroom 20 for me, and I'm off to Room6CDEF. First up was the Supernatural panel which had one of the stars Jensen Ackles showing up. Unfortunately *that* moderator from TV guide was also the moderator for this panel, and is just about as uninteresting as he was before. Jensen had some funny stories about working with Jared Padalecki though, and the many questions about how great the soundtrack of the show is was pretty cool.

Following that was the appearance of the "two Rays," Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. Poor Ray Bradbury, he is in a motorized wheelchair and the lift to get him on the stage was stuck for a while, before they could figure out how to get him out of it. You know, I am aware of how important these two men are to the industry, but I honestly originally was just there to save a spot for the next two panels. It's a good thing I stuck around though, because Ray Bradbury in particular is a very fascinating guy with a lot of good stories in him. Great sense of humor too, plus not afraid to talk politics as well.

Next up is the world premiere of the TV pilot to "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which is the TV series that follows the story after Terminator 2 ended. By this point, I was able to be near the very front of the room, and was actually a couple of feet away from stars Lena Headey. Lena Headey is probably more known for being the queen in the movie 300, and now seeing her in person, wow is she a gorgeous woman who looks younger than she looks on the screen. The TV pilot itself was very very good. It really is the most logical followup to the Terminator movies, if you ignore Terminator 3 that is. What's more of a delight is that Summer Glau; from Firefly / Serenity, is the new Terminator that is sent to protect John Connor. She just kicks ass overall, and it's no secret that those of us in the audience loves her. It was a great panel, and wow am I excited to watch this series when it finally arrives on TV next year.

To end my panel day at Room6CDEF, is "Smallville." They showed us spoiler clips for the upcoming season, as well as appearances by stars like Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, and the new supergirl of the show; Laura Vandervoort (hot!). This was also an entertaining panel that was a lot of fun, and despite my many criticisms of the show, I'm honestly still looking forward to it. One humorous moment was right before the Q&A section started, they announced that the first 15 questions will get a signed authograph t-shirt from Laura Vandervoort herself, and as soon as that was said a rush of people went up to the mike.

Afterwards, I went to go get something to snack on, and proceeded to the photopass area outside the masquerade ball. I found my spot to take pictures and I have to admit that this year is sorta a mix bag for me. There are a lot of great costumes this year and a lot of huge ensemble entrees, but I just wasn't "feeling it" while I was taking photos. Looking at the TV monitor behind me, I wasn't missing too much from the skits that the cosplayers were doing, although there were some notable good ones. I also still have a problem in how  disorganized the photo director was in telling the people how to pose and such, and for once we actually heard complaints from the cosplayers themselves with his direction. To top it off, because of the fact that my camera was on for a very long time this day filming video and non-stop picture taking, I went through both my sets of batteries. I ran out of batteries at the very last entree, and could not take anymore pictures. I decided to just leave at that point, just in case I feel too bad about not being able to take photos of any more cosplayers that I might run into. Sure enough, I count at least 15 more photo ops that I would have liked to have taken.

I went back to the hotel, ate some complimentary popcorn, and now have to once again deal with the wonky internet connection here. I'll have to put in the photos and hotlinks later on an edit, not to mention the videos too. I'm going to go sleep as the last day is fast approaching. I have decided that I now only have plans to attend one panel for Sunday, and the rest of the time I'll just be roaming the exhibit hall / dealer's room.

- Friday re-cap - San Diego Comic-Con -

Being that I missed the past day's big panel (Paramount Studios), I made it a point to be able to go to Friday's big panel; the Warner Bros studio presentation. That panel starts at 10:00AM, and when I got there at 9:25AM, the line to get in "Hall H" was already wrapping almost half way around a 525,000+ square feet building. At that point I was concerned on whether I would be able to get in the 6,500 seat room. To my surprise, I was able to get in! By the time I got in, my friend who just got in line ended up at the same place I started, and I was guessing that he wouldn't be able to make it. Lo and behold to our surprise, he was also able to get in. Damn, that Hall H is in fact *that* big for a panel.

The Warner Bros panel starts up by showing a hilariously great trailer for the upcoming "Get Smart" movie. They also brought in some stars like Masi Oka, Ken Davitian, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, and even Steve Carell for a Q&A session. It was a humorous presentation, and got us hyped to see the film. They also showed trailers for "10,000 BC," "Trick 'r Treat," as well as "the Invasion" with Nicole Kidman greeting us through a taped recording. A trailer for the movie "One Missed Call" was shown, and even though stars Shannyn Sossamon and Edward Burns were there to promote it, that presentation went by quick. They did hand out free iPhones to the four people who went up to ask questions about the movie though. BTW, I should mention that while this panel was going on, there was a scavenger hunt happening outside involving cloud messages in the sky, a secret website, secret phone numbers, etc... It turns out it was related to the upcoming "The Dark Knight," which for some reason had no presentation at this WB panel.

The Warner Bros panel also had the trailer for the movie "Whiteout" which is an adaptation from the graphic novel. Kate Beckinsale came in late for this panel because she was delayed by a Freight Train blocking her way. She redeemed her tardiness however by being delightfully self-deprecating and was humorously very frank. She talked about how the difference between filming Whiteout and her work on "Underworld," is that "she was not sleeping with the director this time around." Not only that but she talked about how unlike "Whiteout" with her wearing a parka, in "Underworld" whenever she had to bend over to pick something up while wearing her skin-tight leather outfit, somebody would grunt. Sexy and funny, I would love to hang out with her, and it's too bad that I didn't get video footage of her comments. The panel ended with Zack Snyder talking about his movie adaptation of the graphic novel "Watchmen," and also brought along Malin Akerman with Jackie Earle Haley. Being a fan of that book, Snyder's treatment of how the movie is going to be, got me pretty darn excited for it (for fans of the book, click here for more info).

The following panel was suppose to be 20th Century FOX, but they unfortunately cancelled. I would have considered that a loss, but it actually gave me the opportunity to do some other things that I wouldn't have been able to do if that panel was going on. First I went upstairs to the autograph section, to see if I wasn't too late to meet the three hosts of G4TV's Attack Of The Show; Olivia Munn, Kevin Pereira, and the person I really wanted to meet Blair Butler. Unfortunately, I was too far back in line and had no chance of meeting them. Luckily however, I went to the area where they exited and no other but Blair Butler was actually still there talking to some of the event staff. I asked one of the event guy if I could take a picture with her, but he said not right now. Ofcourse I understood why and started to walk away, when two other attendees suddenly showed up, butted in Blair's conversation with a "can I take a picture with you?" Since she's a nice person, she went ahead and said okay. At that point, I asked the event guy again, "so is it okay NOW?" I did get that picture with her, and I also told her how glad I was that she recommended the book "Ultra : Seven Days," because that has become one of my favorite graphic novels out there. She was glad I enjoyed it that much and briefly referred me to an upcoming work by the authors of that book, and we went our separate ways.

I went down stairs to the exhibit hall / dealer's room to now start my official walk up and down all 53 aisles , passing all the booths I possibly can (all 550+). I immediately didn't go very far at the beginning however, because I actually met up with the lovely cosplayer Lisa, dressed as Psylocke. She is the cosplayer that I have the annual tradition of having her do an "action pose" with me, usually of her beating me up. This will be the sixth year I've seen her, and coincidentally enough, the first cosplay of hers that I've seen her do is Psylocke. Also oddly enough, that's the only cosplay of hers that we did not do an action pose of, and this meeting gave us the opportunity of fixing that discrepancy. Besides talking about the comic-con and our past meetings, we ended up talking about preparing for a wedding, since she and her long time boyfriend are getting married, not to mention myself and my long time girlfriend. It was great seeing her this time, and I hope to see her in her new costume the next day. We ofcourse plan to do yet another action pose with that one.

I continued my trek down the many aisle of the exhibit hall, picking up some more books, a couple of tee shirts, and the Watchmen giveaway poster I was entitled to for attending the Warner Bros panel. During all that time, I was suppose to go to either the "Shoot 'em Up" panel featuring Clive Owen, but I already saw that movie the past night so that wasn't necessary. There was also the panel for Rob Zombie presenting his version of "Halloween," but I decided to stay down at the exhibit hall and wait until 3PM before I go up to the "American Dad" live reading. By that time, I was only on aisle 23, and I honestly won't be able to go back to my exhibit hall walk through until Sunday, since I'll be upstairs in panels the whole time Saturday.

Once again I had to deal with another long line, which was for the "American Dad" live episode reading. I was far deep in the line, but once again I was surprised at how I was able to get in. The live reading with the cast was fun times all around, and it was well worth it. Afterwards I headed straight for the Star Wars / Lucas Arts panel, which while it was enjoyable as always, with surprise guest Seth McFarlane showing us clips for Star Wars Family Guy, I was really there to guarantee my getting in the Kevin Smith panel.

The Kevin Smith panels are always one of the best highlights at Comic-Con, and this one was no different. He threw us a curveball however by premiering the pilot episode of the show "Reaper," as well as having some of the cast and creators join in. I have to admit, I was going to write off Reaper in my fall lineup, now I'm going to have to make time for it because it was very enjoyable. So what now, is it a Kevin Smith panel or a Reaper panel? Apparently it's a little bit of both, although Kevin Smith would appreciate throwing Reaper a bone with questions as well. Although there were questions about Reaper from the attendees in the Q&A section, the majority of the questions as suspected were for Smith, and wow were there tons of classic stories (especially the one with the dog).

After his panel, I went out to eat with my friend. Went our separate ways, and here I am at the hotel. Damn house cleaning left only one bar soaps, when I actually use two (one for the shower, one for the sink).

- Thursday re-cap - San Diego Comic-Con -

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent lots of money at the Comic-Con already, and you'd think I'd stop while I'm ahead. Nope. Spent some money again, because I'm learning that it can be pretty hard to ignore some really good deals for things that I want anyway. It's a good thing my hotel provides free breakfast, because I can at least save money there.

Every year at Comic-Con, I normally am able to attend a good majority of all the main panels that I like to attend. This year however, due to the over crowding of attendees and the over crowding of the programs and the fact that there's too many things to do, I just have to live with the fact that I won't be able to do everything that I want. That fact became true today, when I wasn't able to enter "Hall H" for the Paramount pictures panel. I even cut in line to get closer to the door (I know, shame shame), but I still wasn't able to get in. At that point where I was in line, it would be almost two whole hours until they'll allow us to enter Hall H for the next panel (Lionsgate). The big draw for me was that Jessica Alba is going to be there, however I've seen her already in the past two years so I can live without that experience this time around. I later found out that in the Paramount panel, they showed the trailer of the upcoming Iron Man movie, had a live feed from the set of Indiana Jones IV, and even gave out cool SWAG. Oh well, I must stay strong to my new way of thinking at comic-con, that I won't be able to see everything I want to see.

Since I didn't get to go to those two panels, I was able to spend more time on the exhibit hall / dealer's room, with my friend and his family. I definitely had a lot of fun roaming the booths, taking more pictures, and picking up new SWAG and stuff. Speaking of taking pictures, I consider myself pretty much "experienced" in asking to take photos from the booth babes and costumed folks in general. Sometimes however some people aren't very receptive to getting their photos taken, like this one time I asked a group of viking cosplayers for a photo and I noticed that one of the girls who was sitting on the ground resting rolling her eyes to that question. Sorry. Then there are times when they are very receptive, like at the Heroes booth were I was able to ask one of the cheerleader booth babes to get the rest of the girls into one group photo. Ofcourse, as soon as that happened, everybody else jumped for the photo-op.

I did get to see a couple of celebrities on the show floor. Blair Butler of G4TV was filming an interview when I saw her, and I have to say that she is even prettier in person; taller too. I cunningly walked behind the interview to see if I was caught on tape (I'll check my TiVo when I get back home). When she was done, I wanted to talk to her for awhile and take a picture with her, however she looked busy so I'll have to find another opportunity to do so. Other celebs I saw were Tobin Bell and James Wan from the Saw movies, which had a booth that was drawing attention from attendees ("keep moving! do not block the aisle!"). G4TV of course had their live broadcast of their Comic-Con special, and I once again tried to see if I could get caught on tape. However this time around they had a stricter policy to keep everybody moving, as opposed to last year when they had a mob surrounding their booth. They also put up graphic cardboard fences, which blocks most of the shot of the background audience, which I guess helps discourage people (like me) who are just standing around there trying to be on film. I was at least able to see hosts Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira, as well as Rosario Dawson who was being interviewed at that particular time.

I went up stairs to the Lost Season 4 panel, a good 45 minutes before it starts. It's a good thing I did, because 15 minutes later, the room was already full. The Lost panel was once again a fun one to go to, and the creators of the show; Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, revealed a few good tidbits about the new season, as well as brought a surprise guest in Harold Perrineau. With a show like Lost however, it is hard for them to tell us more things about what's coming, so as a precaution they had with them bells to ring whenever the other person is about to say too much.

After going to Horton Plaza to eat dinner, with another friend of mine that showed up, we went to the world premiere screening of the movie "Shoot 'em Up." It stars Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, and Monica Bellucci. I'll be doing a proper review of it after my Comic-Con blog coverage, but let me at least say that I thought it was a really fun movie to watch, as long as you leave your brain at the door. If you like gun action sequences, then this is the movie for you.

Before I forget, as I mentioned last year, there's a bidding war from major cities for Comic-Con to move from San Diego. Comic-Con's contract expires next year, so cities like Los Angeles, and New York wants the huge revenue that the event brings. It looks like Comic-Con is here to stay at San Diego for at least four more years ('till 2012) on the new contract, and hopefully they can extend it even further with no problems by then.

Well that's it until Friday's recap. I'm still having issues getting online, so bleah to that. Photos are okay, but any video footage will have to wait.

*edit* Something odd just happened. A little bit after I posted this blog, I hear a knock on my hotel door. I look at the peep hole and there's this woman. I asked her what she wanted and she inquired if I was "Jack." She asks me this while casually looking at her cellphone and all, giving me a wryly smile. I say "No, sorry." She just gives me an "oh, okay" and walks away. Hold on Hold on Hold on, she did look like she was either a stripper or a hooker! Ofcourse I didn't ask her if she was, but damn, what a way to end my day.

- Wednesday recap - San Diego Comic-Con -

I didn't leave for the Comic-Con until 3PM, because I stalled a little too much on some stuff I needed to take care off. Unfortunately because of that, I had to deal with a good amount of traffic that caused me to take longer to get to San Diego. A less than two hours drive ended up going a little over three hours. Upon entering downtown San Diego, I can already tell that the comic-con is already impacting the traffic on the streets, and it's just wednesday. Despite an additional delay, I still got to my hotel with no problem though. The first thing I needed to do was look for the parking lot, and I actually ended up going in circles because I just wasn't sure where it was. It apparently wasn't an indoor lot but one that was outside. I'm a little concerned of my car being exposed to just anybody off the streets, but what can I do ey? When I got to the hotel room, the first impression I got was that it was definitely made for one person staying there. I think my friends that were going to room with me are going to bail out, so I guess the size of the room doesn't matter too much.

I got to the convention center a little pass 7PM, which means I missed a whole hour of "preview night" at the dealer's room. My first concern ofcourse was the fact that I didn't get a member registration barcode in the mail, and I wasn't sure if I was going to have to deal with some hassle there. Apparently, I wasn't the only one without the barcode, and all they needed to do was check my I.D., look me up on the computer, and that's it. I go down stairs to the dealer's room at that point and it was pretty crowded. I think last year's preview night was more crowded than this year, but it sure wasn't looking like it was empty or anything like that. Normally on preview night, I would systematically go up and down the aisles to get the full exposure of all the booths. I didn't do that this time around however, and immediately went to this one booth and started buying several books off my wishlist. I spent $200 just in that one hour at Comic-Con, but I'd rather get most of my shopping out of the way as opposed to carrying too many things around. I did meet up with an old friend briefly, and since he was there since the doors first opened, he was able to get a bunch of good SWAG (stuff we all get). Good for him, because some of those freebies were pretty darn cool.

When I got back to the hotel, the first thing I did was turn on my computer to get online. However since I was at the highest floor, I couldn't, because the hotel primarily only let's you connect wireless. I tried using a free dial-up service number to call, but going back to the slowness that is a dial-up modem, I opted to just carry this laptop to the lobby, where I can get a good wireless signal. *sigh* It is a free internet service as provided by the hotel afterall, but it's still going to be a hassle having to lug my laptop downstairs just to go online. I may refrain from uploading any videos until I get back home (maybe even photos to some degree), since I won't have the luxury of time to do so in this condition.

argh, I'm beat. I'm going to head back upstairs and relax a bit, then sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day. It's kinda funny though, but when I was at the convention center, half my brain felt like it's just a regular normal day, and the other half was all "waitaminute, I'm at comic-con!"

- Pre-San Diego Comic-Con -

Here we go, my first of six blog reports on my trip to the Comic-Con International. I'll be leaving for San Diego in about 6 hours from now, and for some odd reason I'm just not "feeling it." I think it's because I've attended the event so many years already, it just feels like yet another trip for me. Although I can't say I'm not excited, but I'm not exactly overly enthusiastic right now about it. This is also the first year that I'm absolutely not prepared for the trip. I still don't have my clothes and items packed, and I'm still cramming a bunch of things that I need to do before I leave.

I think part of the problem is that there's a slight chance I may not even be able to enter the convention center, due to the fact that I never got my attendee registration confirmation! I thought they were just running late in sending it out, but today's the day I leave and still there was nothing in the mail. I even registered on site last year (it's the cheapest then), which is good I suppose, because I at least still have my credit card receipt from last year to prove that I paid for membership.

This year I'm staying at a new hotel I've never stayed at before, the "Comfort Inn Gaslamp" in downtown San Diego. The prices for the hotels this year have gone up yet again, sincethe past years. As long as comic-con keeps bringing in even more people every year (almost sold out this year), the hotel rooms are a hot commodity. Every year I get a hotel, I always get a room with a second bed, just in case a friend wants to go with me. Every year, a friend either bails out on me over there, or never goes at all. So this year I got a room with only one bed (plus one rollaway), and sure enough, I got several people who wouldn't mind rooming with me.

Now, I'm going to go finish up a few chores, pack up my stuff for the trip, and get a little bit of sleep (I should have called in my graveyard shift this past night). There hasn't really been a year at Comic-Con that's completely let me down, and while I'm feeling more pessimistic right now about my trip there, I'm sure by Sunday night I'll be praising yet another fun memorable time.

Life's A Random Bitch

Harry Potter audio book parody (audio)

Harry Potter rap (video)

Canon Rock (video)

Pachelbel rant (video)

model falls, news anchors laugh (video)

6th generation iPod interface? (video)

Ultimate the Simpsons intro (video)

171 Starbucks in one day (video)

slap happy (game)

Rehabilitation in a Philippines prison (videos)

Everything stopped for me. I was going to watch Die Hard 4 and Chuck & Larry these past two days but didn't. E-mail, and message boards I frequent, will have to wait. Some chores have been put aside already. My TiVo will still have the timed programs I have recorded in it. Besides this quick blog update, bath, sleep, food, and work later on, everything else I normally do in my everyday life is put on hold... until I finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Man, what a great book it's been so far since I started reading it yesterday, spending probably a combined total of about 14 hours worth of time on it (not in one seating mind you). This is undoubtedly the best volume of the series by far for me, and I'm already about 3/4ths of the 759 pages in the book. I have approximately another 3-4 hours left necessary to finish the book. With dinner and work later tonight, I'm sure I'll be done by tomorrow. Expect a review on Tuesday's blog post.