Hey all. I will get my review of the rest of the days of comic con 2011 up soon (and hopefully with pics =D ) but I need to get this off my chest and want to know if others had this problem as well. First thing first, I was having trouble accessing the wifi all weekend. I don't know if it was me or my devices but I could never make use of the WIFI. I was running a Samsung Epic 4G and an HP Touchpad tablet (I did think about the Ipad2 but I really love WebOS and will support it as long as the products are available) and everytime I would access a WIFI server it kept asking me for a log-in. Now I thought that the WIFI at the convention center was free.
Anywho, my first real problem was that my cellphone battery would barely last me a good 5-6 hours. This was with constant usage of twitter, facebook, gmail, and the web browser for the Epic 4G. I did have my charger in my backpack but rarely had time to sit down near a socket and recharge. I think it would be a great help for everyone if next year charging stations could be set up at specific areas of the convention center floor or more specifically in lines while we are all waiting 2-3 hours either to get into the convention hall, a specific panel, or just waiting to win a raffle. I wanted to keep up with all the tweets of the day and provide my own as well but that would only cause more stress to the phone. Now I guess most people at comic con had the iphone4 and those phones all appear to have good battery life but I'm on Sprint and the iphone is not available (and I need to have a physical keyboard for typing) so please don't respond with comments such as, "Get away from Sprint, you need the iphone". Thanks.
Secondly, and I know this is something that will continue to be present at any major convention, is that people need to be somewhat hygienic. I enjoy meeting new people in whatever line I'm in or whatever panel I'm at, but it makes it difficult to maintain focus on the conversation when there is an oderiferous emination that won't go away. I understand that for some people the Comic-Con is so important that sleep and showers seem secondary, but please consider carrying a box of mints, a pocket deodorant, and maybe some sort of cologne or perfume. For example, last year I thought the best freebee giveaway was the deodorant bar given away from (I believe) mattel.
Thirdly is people who bring strollers to the Comic-Con, I do not mind you, but please stop hitting the back of my feet and legs and then complaining that I'm moving too slow or am not moving out of the way for you. HAVE YOU SEEN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT ARE ON THE CONVENTION FLOOR!!! Definitely not easy to manuvuer through those aisles but I always take into consideration people with strollers or wheelchairs or any other type of assitance device. The only other thing that truly bugs me about strollers are people who use them to hold stuff and not the children that are crying and yelling or being pulled by those corded backpacks. It bugs me because I should have thought of that. It would be so much easier on my back if I had some sort of cart to carry my stuff throughout the convention hall.
Fourthly are the ELITE security guards who are posted at specific positions in the hall telling people, "you can't go there." Now I know not all the security guards are not like that and most that I met were very cool and personable people, but there are those select few who made me walk out of my way when there were people clearly on the other side. Example, during one of the morning lineups for autograph raffles, I was on the outside of the sails pavilion waiting in line when a friend calls and needs to get something from me. I politely ask the people who were next to me in line if it would be ok to save my place while I do this errand and they said yes. Well as I'm about to enter that gap between the sails and where ballroom 20 is, a security guard tells me I cannot pass and need to go all the way around. Most of the time I will gladly follow because its the rules, but only if it makes sense. This did not. I wanted back in, guard says no, and directly on the other side of the guard where three people talking about the fringe bag they just received.
Well anywho I needed to get that off my chest because for the many years I have been going to Comic-Con I have become well accostumed to the procedures but please lets try to make some of these things better or just go away.
I would love to hear from others what are some of their pet peeves or Comic-Con and maybe some suggestions that would make Comic-Con a better experience for them.
Until next time....
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wednesday - Preview Night
First off I want to say hello and thank you for taking the time to find this blog and read this. This is my first time doing a blog so I apologize in advance if this tends to ramble on or lack some detail but I am just writing this during my lunch break and trying to remember all that was Comic Con 2011, mostly because I still cannot get it out of my head. Yes I am so happy and thankful that I get to attend (and have for the past 18 years) but right now my body is glad to have had one long good nights rest and to take a lot of weight of off my feel. I will post something separate describing my experience with the Comic Con and what truly got my wanting to create a blog about one of my favorite times of the year.
Wow first night of Comic Con and I could feel the excitement in the air. I gathered my backpack and poster tube and was ready for my ritual luncheon/early dinner that the group of people that I attend with do every year. This year we hit up Hodad's and the burger and beer really hit the spot. Then the walk to the convention center to pick up the badges began and nothing feels sweeter than seeing the Gaslamp District of San Diego being transformed into the pop-culture, entertainment mecca that is the San Diego Comic Convention. I just love seeing bars and restaurants being transformed into themed places of everything comic and pop-culture related.
I had my schedule ready for the weekend. I had an idea of which panels I would attend, which autographs I would try to get, which giveaway/exclusives I would want, and which parties I would be attending in the evenings. Definitely had each day booked with things to do, but preview night is all about finding out about the last minute additions companies do with their packed schedule of events. So off into the convention hall I go.
Well I finally get to the convention center and I get that feeling of going to a summer camp (or as I call it Nerd/Geek Camp, seeing old friends again, reminisce about previous cons and discuss our plans and expectations for this year's con). Of course we also get to gripe about the changes that were made to this year's con as well. Surprisingly enough the badge pickup was quick and simple. I decided to get my badge at 5:00pm and was out of there at 5:15pm. It felt great.
So now the thing at Comic con that I will be spending the most energy and time doing begins.... WAITING IN LINE. Yes, the lovely dance of standing on my heels, then toes, then outside of foot, taking 5-10 steps forward, stop and repeat. This was the first day, or as I call it Day 0 of comic con, and my feet, legs, knees, ankles, and back were feeling fine and I had no complaints about it.
Inside the Convention hall my first move was to do the Pan-Am flight to try and get that sweet vintage Pan-Am flight bag. Well they weren't starting flights until 6:40 and I decided to roam around the hall (bad decision as I will tell you later) and visit some familiar booths (Lionsgate, CBS, WB, Fox, Marvel, DC, etc) to inquire about their booth autograph schedule, freebee giveaways, and other exclusive things that would be good to know. Other than Marvel and DC, most of the booths were close together but still hard to get too as there still seemed to be quite a lot of people, given that this preview night was suppose to be limited to certain badge holders but that's another story.
I get the info I was looking for and head back to the Pan-Am booth and realized all the "flights" had been booked, but just like a true airline and the great character acting of the booth babes, "there will be a standby line for anyone looking to get on a flight". Well I waited for a little but wasn't able to get on a flight and had to give up my chance that day to catch a "flight" and snag a sweet Pan-Am bag.
I spent the rest of my evening just scouring the floor and realizing that so many booths have contest that are either twitter, facebook, qr scans, or microsoft snap tags and I had all the hashtags and messages ready to go for each contest. For example, Cowboys and aliens was offering a chance for the comic con fans to attend the world premiere of the movie by texting 'cowboys' to 834567. Unfortunately for me this service did not work for Sprint (ugh! Boo Sprint, but I still love the truly unlimited plans you do offer =D) but I did have a friend who was able to get that service and gold bricks would be handed out at various locations throughout the Gaslamp District (I'll comment more on that scavenger hunt in my next post). WB had microsoft snap tags, which again did not seem to work for my Sprint Samsung Epic, that were to be scanned. For some reason my phone could not scan image well and never sent the image. Anyway more griping about my phone later.
Wednesday preview night done and I already feel overwhelmed and my proposed schedule just got significantly tighter. Now the trouble is deciding which things I can live with not getting and which things are a must. For example on Thursday morning I had the captain america screening at Horton Plaza United theatre (which is about 8-10 blocks from the convention center), do the Real Steel presentation at Petco Park parking lot (again away from convention center but only 2 blocks away. Oh yeah this was something I had just heard about today and wanted to squeeze into my Thursday schedule) or go to the convention hall to get in on the Game of Thrones autograph raffle by WB. Not to mention lining up for ballroom 20 for the tv show panels.
Let's just say Wednesday night let to some difficult time sleeping. I also realize that after doing this blog (which is my first by the way, so sorry for the real bareboned look to it) I should have taken more pictures of the stuff I was doing so I can post them. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed my first post on Comic con 2011. I'll get my Thursday - Sunday reviews hopefully by the end of the week.
Until next time...
Wow first night of Comic Con and I could feel the excitement in the air. I gathered my backpack and poster tube and was ready for my ritual luncheon/early dinner that the group of people that I attend with do every year. This year we hit up Hodad's and the burger and beer really hit the spot. Then the walk to the convention center to pick up the badges began and nothing feels sweeter than seeing the Gaslamp District of San Diego being transformed into the pop-culture, entertainment mecca that is the San Diego Comic Convention. I just love seeing bars and restaurants being transformed into themed places of everything comic and pop-culture related.
I had my schedule ready for the weekend. I had an idea of which panels I would attend, which autographs I would try to get, which giveaway/exclusives I would want, and which parties I would be attending in the evenings. Definitely had each day booked with things to do, but preview night is all about finding out about the last minute additions companies do with their packed schedule of events. So off into the convention hall I go.
Well I finally get to the convention center and I get that feeling of going to a summer camp (or as I call it Nerd/Geek Camp, seeing old friends again, reminisce about previous cons and discuss our plans and expectations for this year's con). Of course we also get to gripe about the changes that were made to this year's con as well. Surprisingly enough the badge pickup was quick and simple. I decided to get my badge at 5:00pm and was out of there at 5:15pm. It felt great.
So now the thing at Comic con that I will be spending the most energy and time doing begins.... WAITING IN LINE. Yes, the lovely dance of standing on my heels, then toes, then outside of foot, taking 5-10 steps forward, stop and repeat. This was the first day, or as I call it Day 0 of comic con, and my feet, legs, knees, ankles, and back were feeling fine and I had no complaints about it.
Inside the Convention hall my first move was to do the Pan-Am flight to try and get that sweet vintage Pan-Am flight bag. Well they weren't starting flights until 6:40 and I decided to roam around the hall (bad decision as I will tell you later) and visit some familiar booths (Lionsgate, CBS, WB, Fox, Marvel, DC, etc) to inquire about their booth autograph schedule, freebee giveaways, and other exclusive things that would be good to know. Other than Marvel and DC, most of the booths were close together but still hard to get too as there still seemed to be quite a lot of people, given that this preview night was suppose to be limited to certain badge holders but that's another story.
I get the info I was looking for and head back to the Pan-Am booth and realized all the "flights" had been booked, but just like a true airline and the great character acting of the booth babes, "there will be a standby line for anyone looking to get on a flight". Well I waited for a little but wasn't able to get on a flight and had to give up my chance that day to catch a "flight" and snag a sweet Pan-Am bag.
I spent the rest of my evening just scouring the floor and realizing that so many booths have contest that are either twitter, facebook, qr scans, or microsoft snap tags and I had all the hashtags and messages ready to go for each contest. For example, Cowboys and aliens was offering a chance for the comic con fans to attend the world premiere of the movie by texting 'cowboys' to 834567. Unfortunately for me this service did not work for Sprint (ugh! Boo Sprint, but I still love the truly unlimited plans you do offer =D) but I did have a friend who was able to get that service and gold bricks would be handed out at various locations throughout the Gaslamp District (I'll comment more on that scavenger hunt in my next post). WB had microsoft snap tags, which again did not seem to work for my Sprint Samsung Epic, that were to be scanned. For some reason my phone could not scan image well and never sent the image. Anyway more griping about my phone later.
Wednesday preview night done and I already feel overwhelmed and my proposed schedule just got significantly tighter. Now the trouble is deciding which things I can live with not getting and which things are a must. For example on Thursday morning I had the captain america screening at Horton Plaza United theatre (which is about 8-10 blocks from the convention center), do the Real Steel presentation at Petco Park parking lot (again away from convention center but only 2 blocks away. Oh yeah this was something I had just heard about today and wanted to squeeze into my Thursday schedule) or go to the convention hall to get in on the Game of Thrones autograph raffle by WB. Not to mention lining up for ballroom 20 for the tv show panels.
Let's just say Wednesday night let to some difficult time sleeping. I also realize that after doing this blog (which is my first by the way, so sorry for the real bareboned look to it) I should have taken more pictures of the stuff I was doing so I can post them. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed my first post on Comic con 2011. I'll get my Thursday - Sunday reviews hopefully by the end of the week.
Until next time...
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