Conclusions of Variety A Personal Blog on my happenings and thoughts

Comic Con 07Posted by cczernia on July 30th, 2007

Comic Con was great this year but it started off a little rough. My original plan was to go half a day Thursday and Friday and then all day Saturday. I decided to pick up my badge on Thursday at 12 but discovering that the line wrapped around the convention center I decided not to go and take a full day on Friday.

On Friday I picked up my badge at 9:30 (with no problem) and headed in at 10 when the door opened. I walked the dealers hall for about 3 and half hours when I ran into Joss Whedon at the Dark Horse booth and got my picture with him.

After that I went to the Neil Gaimen panel and then back down to the dealers hall to hang out with my friends Albert and Jenny for an hour. I then headed back up for a panel on Vertigo Comics and then after that a panel on the new “Babylon 5: Lost Tales”, the new B5 direct to DVD movie which had JMS and Bruce Boxlightner.

On Saturday I went with my friend Jonathan and his friend from out of town Dale. Once again we hit the dealers hall for about an hour and then went to see the panel on Laura K Hamilton who write cheesy vampire fiction. After that we went back down to the dealers hall (which wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be for a Saturday) and then got some lunch.

Next was three more panels including “The Women of Battlestar Galactica”, “Futurama”, and “Joss Whedon.” The Futurama was the best panel as they handed out little comics and had all the voice actors from the show do a live reading.

Overall, a great con. Can’t wait for next year.

ComicCon Costume PicsPosted by cczernia on July 29th, 2007

I’ll put up a recap of comic-con later. Until then here are some pictures of people in costume I managed to get a picture of.

Comic Con & Date NightPosted by cczernia on July 31st, 2006

Last weekend was comic-con. It was a lot of fun. This time I took half days and Thursday and Friday and went with my friend Marc. We started on Wednesday for preview night and walked around the dealers hall. I discovered one of my favorite comic, Red Star, was back in print and Marc was excited to stop by the Privateer Press and Neo-Tokyo booths.

On Thursday we continued our journey in the dealers hall and spend most of our time shopping and got dinner around 5. On Friday we saw Battlestar Galactica panel and I discovered the 50% graphic novel booth.

On Saturday I went with Erik, Jonathan and Michelle and we arrived around 10am. It was packed around 1pm they weren’t selling anymore tickets. I spent most of my time in panels or watching indy movies. After that I was exhausted and decided to call it a con.

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This Saturday was Stephanie and my second date night. Date Night is a night where one of us takes a turn to be romantic and spoil the other. A few months ago I started it with dinner and dancing which did not go well. Stephanie had ran a hard run and her back hurt.

This time it was her turn and it went a lot better. Stephanie started out with buying me four bags of M&Ms that say “I love Chris.” She then took me to African Singing in the park with wine, cheese and crackers. We had dinner at a great restaurant called “The Linkery” which served gourmet sausage. We finished it off at a fancy dessert place.

Wow, wasn’t even Valentine’s Day. Now it’s my turn and the pressure is on to come up with something as romantic as that evening.

Thurston, Eddie and TabithaPosted by cczernia on July 11th, 2006

Last Friday Stephanie and I headed down to Cox Arena for the Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam concert. We got there about 30min before the concert and I picked up a Sonic Youth t-shirt.

The concert opened with Eddie Vedder coming out with a mandolin and playing a short song and then he announced Sonic Youth who I thought were great, even the noisy parts. Stephanie would not agree as she decided to get up and leave for a bit and pick up a Pearl Jam shirt she thought would look cute on her. SY only did songs from there new album “Rather Ripped.”

Pearl Jam came on soon after. By that time the arena was packed and they rocked the house with tons of songs and two encores. The great thing about the show is that Eddie Vedder use to live in San Diego so he knew a lot about the town and would name off suburbs with ease. He told a story about this teacher he had and how the proceeds from the concert tickets were going to a theater that he was building in his name up in Encinatas.

Later in the weekend I hung out with Tabitha who I hadn’t seen in years. She was a friend in Las Cruces who is a bigger anime dork than me. She came down to San Diego for a convention on how to teach The Constitution. On Sunday we hung out at the beach with a few of her coworkers and then went to the anime store where she bought 19 mangas. We then went to Misuwa which is a Japanese grocery store with a bunch of little Japanese mini-stores inside like a toy store (manga, anime, models), appliance store, book store, kitchen store, and a little restaurant were I got a rice ball and a taiyaki (sweet pastry shaped like a fish).

On Monday a bunch of us headed over to Niban Sushi restaurant that I frequent. I had dinner with my close friends Jonathan and Michelle and Tabitha along with her friends Veronica and Less came along. We even headed over to the gaming store afterwards but less refused to go in because he said it was too geek for him.

Bases LoadedPosted by cczernia on March 22nd, 2006

I’m not a big baseball fan but Stephanie is. So, last Saturday we attended the semi-finals to the World Baseball Classic. The first game was between the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Yeah, Cuba. This got the best jokes like “wow, those Cubans are playing like their lives depend on it.” The game was pretty slow but the Cubans won which was really cool.

After the game we met up with some livejournal friends, Nancy and Paul and went to Hodads for dinner. We then headed back for the second game, Japan vs Korea. This is easily the funnest baseball game I’ve ever been to. This was mostly because of the Koreans who are the greatest fans I’ve seen. The constantly cheered and were extremely passionate about the game. And I’m not talk about 1 or 2 Koreans, no, I’m talking all of them at the stadium.

The game itself was also exciting as it was a low scoring game but the players were constantly hitting. I’ve found that pitching is what bores me about the game. I like it when the players hit the ball, even if it is a pop fly or an easy out thrown to first.

On Monday we attended the final which was Japan vs Cuba. This was a fun game especially at the top of the ninth when Japan was leading by 1 run. Japan ends up winning and I found that I enjoy “World” baseball a lot more then “Professional” baseball. I liked not having to have a “team” to cheer for. I was just enjoying baseball. I also enjoyed the cultural elements of the different fans and the announcements in different languages.

On Sunday we also attended a play “Intimate Apparel” about a black seamstress who makes lingerie for other woman. She starts getting romantic letters from a mysterious stranger working in Panama. He then shows up in NY and marries the seamstress.

The performance was excellent and everything was well done. The only problem was that you had to keep your ticket to get free parking and I through ours out when we left. Cost me $20. Damn.