Almost Live From Comic Con Friday Madness

We left the hotel at 6:40 am, pure madness. 

At the convention center we found huge masses of people and monster lines.  The heaviest line was for the exhibit hall.  It wrapped around the building.  amazingly, we found that the exhibit halls did not open till 9:30 and here were all these crazy people in line.

We decided to get in line for our own first panel which was at 10:30!!!! We sat watching costumed people float by till the time of the panel. Bizzarely, all of the people in line ahead of us (about 7 people and who knows how many behind us) were not wanting to see the books into films panel at all, but they were queueing for this room so they could stay in the room after our panel and be well situated for  the WWE panel at 11:30. 

So our panel had a room potentially full of wrestling fans.  The guy behind us explained you have to just get into your room as soon as you can and plant yourself for the panel you really want. 

I was already tortured that so many things I wanted to see were at the same time, and to pick between them.  It is so much worse to know you can really only see things that are a good two hours apart to give you time to wait in line for your potential event.

If you want something in Hall H, the 6500 capacity room, you need to be at the con at who knows what time and just stay in there till your event. 

A bit maddening.  that said, the panel on books into film (proper title later) was the best of the day.  We had seats right up front.  I was just a few feet away from Tony DiTerlizzi's spot and was too excited.  Then he shows up talking to some people a few feet away.  Mr. DOA says go talk to him and I say nooo I'm too shy.  So he bustles on over and says  something to Tony and next thing you know I'm posing for a picture with him and chatting about the con. 

He is just the nicest guy.  I love his Wondla books and was able to tell him so in person :)  He had this story of Ray Bradbury rolling through the convention and talking with people and the way he said "he was right there, just talking to everyone" such wonderful fannish adoration of one of my own heroes....Tony DiTerlizzi is now high on my own author idols list.

We also saw (while waiting for the Bradbury panel) a panel on DC collectibles.  Great to hear the audience ooh and ahh over upcoming DC character models.

The Bradbury panel had Margaret Atwood (thunderous applause for her), Joe Hill, Sam Weller and another guy, sorry will fill in details later from my notes).  I thought from the description they would actually talk about Bradbury's influence on film and culture but they really spoke about what Bradbury meant to each of them. 

There was a librarian who stood up and who said he had helped save her library and that he had appeared there for programs dozens of times. I wa soo jealous.  I am incredibly lucky to schedule local authors at our library to give readers a chance to meet the people who write the fantastic stories we all love.  To be able to have my favorite author of all time, ha! unimaginable.

We spent a couple of hours in the exhibit hall and I think we covered hardly anything.  Have to squeeze more time in tomorrow.

Saw the Beauty and the Beast pilot episode (part of it because of the line) . Saw the luminous Kristin Kreuk via projection screen on the panel.  I'l be watching the show.  They have changed the mythology/back story a bit.

Pictures and details to be added later!

Almost Live From Comic Con Arrival

Fair warning, written on my iPad aka the smoosher so sardine city till I can correct on my laptop. We knew we were headed in the right direction when a woman in the Minneapolis airport spent ten minutes posing and photographing her twelve inch high Gandalf statue in from of the Delta flight display boards.

The most Excellent Marigold Hotel was showing on board, which I watched with two dollar earbuds pressed into my ears so I could make out most of the dialogue. A sweet movie as I thought it would be.

Easy ride to the hotel,then off to the Town and Country Hotel to get our badges for tomorrow. Huge crowd out front so Rob dropped me off, while he parked. A monster crowd snaked through a huge reception room. The line moved fast considering there must have been several hundred people in the line. I thought Mr. DOA would never find me but all,of a sudden there he was, leaping the chain and right next to me. The security people were really nice and helped him find his way over to me. After the very quick badge procurement, we stepped into the next room. In the doorway we were offered wildly colorful lanyards. Just inside young men handed us two thick books. Most amazing of all we were handed huge (almost as tall as me...edit waist high) bags with Comic Con art on one side and a Superman logo or Hobbit logo on the other. Outside people were,unhappily trying to trade bags with the art from the show Supernatural on them. No way!

The morning schedule is packed with things I want to see running at the same time. Rats! I wrote down in my con notebook the twelve things I want to see most and there is no way to see them all. Additionally, the con book says there are over one thousand exhibitors. When can I see them if the rest of the schedule is so tight? This is literally the stuff dreams are made of.

Almost Live! From Comic Con San Diego 2012

We will be at this year's Comic Con for two of the four days (we could only get two in their fiendish lottery system.).

I'll be giving reports from the Con with pics of the action.  There are tons of things to see at the exhibitors booths. 

I plan to have as empty a suitcase as possible on the way there so I may PACK it with goodies purchased on site. 

Mr. DOA has agreed to take pictures of me at the con (usually I take all the vacation photos and I have to wrench my companion's arms to take a quick photo of me and I always look like a dead angry gorilla).

Some highlights for me:

Eoin Colfer!!! of the Artemis Fowl books will be there.  Our whole family loves those books.

The Lego booth will have life size (I think)  statues of Bilbo and Gandalf made of Legos.

An Indiana Jones booth will let you get your picture taken with "a slither of snakes".

Lionsgate will have Hunger Games related panels and hopefully swag.

Blizzard will "showcase" WOW Starcraft and Diablo in a talk with developers.

Artist's alley with an array of artists and their wares.

Tony DiTerlizzi will be at a Mysterious Galaxy bookshop signing and on a panel.  I love his Wondla books in particular.

Warren Spector will be on a panel.  He will be talking about Epic Mickey 2, but I idolize him for his previous work and will be just dying to be in the same room with him breathing the same air :)

Mr. DOA will be taking SURF LESSONS.  DOA's camera crew will capture that event, never fear.

See you in San Diego!

The Secret World Initial Impressions

I installed this late in the evening and installation was long so I got little play time. I will try all three factions but after watching the video clips I went Dragon.

Not much customization for my character was available, but the character model itself was nicely done. Graphically sharp.

Interesting opening storyline wherein my character is snoozing away and some bug (obviously remotely guided) flies down her throat. She proceeds to have some rather dreamy sequences as she is indoctrinated into the Dragon society.

When you finally have control you follow some butterflies down a set of narrow city streets to a hotel. You get credit for objectives for following them. Obviously still in tutorial mode. At a hotel, things take a turn for the dopey. You go to a room where a giant Mr. Clean looking guy in droopy undies and full body tattoos (eek!) gives you a languid look, but he is sent away by a woman who gives you a little more explanation and a bit of gratuitous sex.

I did read reviews who said blah blah this is Funcom and there will be boobies and sex, but it adds nothing and detracts from an otherwise intriguing story. I'm hoping that the dominatrix scenes are few going forward because I like the modern setting and the RPG feel of the game otherwise. I've been looking forward to the game and its promised problem solving mystery elements. We shall see.

The Fear by Charlie Higson

The is the third title by Charlie Higson featuring a world where everyone over the age of sixteen has become a zombie.  Set in London as was the last title, it ties together a few of the groups of kids who have made fortresses against the zombies in the heart of the city.

The main view point has shifted to DogNut, second in command at the Tower of London who goes across the city to find the group of kids who left in a truck at the end of The Dead.  He hopes to find Brooke, who he fancies.  By his side is less attractive but faithful Courtney who of course secretly loves DogNut.

I read the first two novels The Enemy and The Dead together and the The Fear a year afterward so I'm not sure if this seems less action packed than the first two  because of that, or what.  There is another book in the works called The Sacrifice.  According to Higson, the series will cover seven books.

Despite the fact that I waited a year to read this, read through it like a fiend, then felt that nobody got anywhere...I'm avidly checking Higson's site for information and am thinking I should buy the Sacrifice via Amazon UK when it comes out in England in September of this year...eek.  Then a whole year won't go by and I'll feel more like I picked right up where I left off.  I like the plan.

Tech Tip: using Spell Check in a language other than English in Microsoftt Word 2010

Here is something I learned today--you can change the Dictionary in Microsoft Word 2010 to a language such as Nicaraguan Spanish (for example) so that it will do a spell check for you of what you have written in Spanish.  It puts in all the little accent marks and everything.

Type a few lines so that there is some to spell check.

Select the Review Tab

Spelling and Grammar from the Proofing Group

Options

Language

Add Additional Editing Languages (dropdown)

Select Language

Add

Ok

Save Document

Close Word

Open Word

Select Spelling and Grammar from the Review Tab/Proofing Group

Voila!

D.O.A. Week in Review

Stoopid iPad.  See what a mess? I'm going to leave it this way as a cautionary note.  When I wrote it there were spaces between paragraphs and no odd replacement words.  bah.



That juicy semi-regular feature makes another appearance, yay! Did you know that blogs are supposed to be sort of online diaries? Ya. My longest question of the week was an ebook question, no surprise. It is always hard to help people troubleshoot tech questions by phone, and in the case of ebooks you are really in trouble because not only can't you see what is on their screen, you don't actually know the device well yourself. Blind leading the blind indeed. Still, I patiently helped her work through. She even asked how I could be so patient at one point. I assured her if the device was in my hand I would be saying bad words and thinking of pounding on it, but since it was miles away no problemo. Kids are gearing up big time for summer reading. Rick Riordan's books seem like the favorite again so far. Hot hot weather for the garden and not so much rain, so I'm out watering the veggies and annuals twice a day. They seem happy. My celery looks fine, and my tomatoes are lush so if those picky guys are happy all must be well. The Little Marvel peas seem happy enough though some I purchased as plants rather than growing from seed are all wilty. Very pleased with another successful dungeon run with my tank. Since Mr. D.O.A. Was interested in going in with her I went random and got Wailing Caverns. I feared I would get lost, but I hit all the marks. There was a Worgen paladin being an utter turkey, stealing aggro, rolling need on everything, not letting some poor hunter try to tame a beastie. I was trying to boot him when he left. I have had trouble in each dungeon with some galoot trying to outdo my tank and I am thinking it is an epeen thing...they don't want to be shown up by a pink pigtailed gnome. Poof, I say. Ready for my next book, and I have a grand pile but I really want to read Charlie Higson's the Fear next, just available in the U.S. the library doesn't own it so must order it. Blah blah blah. Pictures to be added later. Writing on my dingly iPad.

The Noble Gnome

I finally got my Warrior to level 15 and gave her all of the armor, potions scrolls and jewelry I could make.  I have never seen a Gnome tank in the dungeons but they must exist, right?  The goggles are an Engineering piece of headgear that adds to her stats.  Looks fierce too, right?

My first group was composed of bozos from bozoville.  Things happen fast but I think there were two hunters and they were the most obnoxious I think I've seen.  Just shot at everything, gave me no chance to run in and get aggro.  They're lucky I can't type fast or their eyeballs would have been singed, I say, singed.  So, I barreled on ahead while they were delicately picking up loot.  As soon as the dungeon was over I left without a word.  Smokin.

Right back in, I get a really good group, everyone does what needs doing and we zoom through.  People really should try all the roles so they see how easily you can hose things by being a dufus. 

I'll calm down tomorrow.  I really stressed over doing well at this particular role, and I think I did everything right but yo.

The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking Book 1 by Patrick Ness

I'm trying to just get my book "reviews" out there instead of waiting till I can do it juuust right and never doing it. 

I finished reading this pretty late last night and I think it got into my dreams. Tsk.  It was recommended by co-workers who warned me it was sad and a particular plot point was easier to take because I was prepared for it.

Except for one bit of plot I didn't find it to be sad, just a real page turner.  It is sort of a prolonged chase from beginning to end.

Todd will reach manhood at thirteen.  He is the last boy in his all male settlement.  When you reach thirteen you become a man.  Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts thanks to a disease inherent on the planet this group has settled on.  There are only men because women were killed by the disease.  As far as Todd knows, they are the last survivors on the planet.

One day however, Todd is in the swamps with his unappreciated dog companion Manchee and he meets a girl.  Impossible, but there she is.  Even more impossible, he cannot read her thoughts.  After a short lifetime of finding ways to block out the random chaotic thoughts of his fellows, this "silence" is beyond unnerving for him. 

He rescues her from Aaron, a shamblingly evil  man who cannot be killed or even slowed down, it seems.  In his confusion over this incident and the finding of the girl, he returns home to find his guardians are packing his bags and that they are determined to set him on the road on his own to escape something they will not name.

Joining him on the journey is the dog Manchee who is simple yet loyal and the girl who says nothing and apparently thinks nothing.  Todd has a map that he can barely read and the directive to run and get away from Prentisstown as fast as he can.

He soon finds that the entire town is in pursuit of him and his companions as he runs and runs trying to stay ahead of them.

The developing relationship between Todd and the girl Viola is a representation of what the larger society should be, but is not.  Todd is not just the last boy in his settlement, he is the last hope for everyone as he acts to fight his inner chaos, and to deny that he can be shaped by the thoughts of others.

Patrick Ness's Website

D.O.A. Week in Review

Yet another semi-regular feature you'll never see again!  I am sooo funny.

Tidbits from the real live week of D.O.A.!

Our library's Facebook page featured a local girl who had won in the Letters about Literature competition.  The old idea of writing to your favorite author and telling them how their book changed them or made them think is turned into a unique set of letters from kids of all ages.  Some of them are so touching, including that of our local girl.  Take a look at the Winning Letters tab.

The CAT, owned by my son but living with us for the nonce continues to charm.  He thinks he is such a mighty hunter out in the yard.  Inside the house, I am eternally grateful to see NO SPIDERS or any other bugs.  Part of me regrets to report he eats them after he kills them.

I've been meaning to share this Shakespearean rendition of The Three Little Pigs for awhile:


http://youtu.be/OxoUUbMii7Q


38 Studios, that grand and glorious place of wonder, hubris and undaunted imagination went under.  I could not be more surprised and saddened.  I've seen many game studios come and go but these guys had so much going for them. In my heart they are still where they started, as the unbelievably cool Green Monster Games.  I'm hoping they can find investors and find their way out of the mess they're in.

I helped a lady at Eagan's reader bar with her Nook this week.  It really helped me to help her walk through the process, and thank goodness she had her laptop with her.  Having the Nook so tied to a particular pc (and in this case horror of horrors a MAC) is a real pain when you're trying to help someone work through the process.

It doesn't help me at all to "practice" on the eBook devices or read tipsheets or anything unless I've helped someone through the steps myself.  If I see the actual steps and what happens when you take them, see the messages that pop up, see where to find the dang books on your pc and then on your device (not so easy as you'd think!) then I can see the process in my mind next time I do it.   I wrote down the basics for myself as soon as we were done and now I can help anyone much more effectively.  I hope!  Visual learner city.