Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

During the writer’s strike, Joss Whedon was busy creating a 40-minute direct-to-interwebz-and-then-to-DVD musical called “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” starring Neil Patrick Harris as a “low-rent supervillain” and Nathan Fillion as the hero.

It will air in three parts on drhorrible.com that are FREE TO WATCH between July 15th and July 20th at midnight (what time zone, Joss?). Here’s the trailer:

AND, and, and. You know how I’m all excited about going to Comic Con? Well Joss added to my excitement by writing this in his Dr. Horrible Master Plan:

We intend to make it available for download soon after it’s published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we’re hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew.

And somewhat later, we will put the complete short epic out on DVD – with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We’ll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we’re changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD.

Did you see that I placed the most important part of that statement in bold? I have no idea if I’ll be able to score entrance to that panel, but this is just a reminder to everyone that AWESOME THINGS WILL HAPPEN AT COMIC CON and I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED OMG YOU DON’T EVEN REALIZE.

I am foaming at the mouth with geek slobber. Note to self: have an absorbent cloth available at all times while in the convention hall.

Thanks to Sam in Australia for sending me the Dr. Horrible details.

Despite the fact that I missed out on purchasing a 4-day pass AND a Saturday 1-day pass, as of right now the trip to San Diego is still on. I called the hotel and was able to change my stay to arrive on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, so that in the event that I only attend the show Thursday and Friday I will at least be able to maximize my time there.

Of course there’s also a chance that I will cave and try to score a better-than-wretched deal for a 4-day pass on eBay. Unless someone out there has an extra 4-day pass and wants to share it with me…?

We’ll probably fly home (or maybe drive? that’s still up in the air) on Sunday instead of Tuesday, which will cut things short but we’ll save the cost of a night’s hotel stay. And we’ll have to miss the Padres game and potentially Sea World. But I’m sure we do both of those things another time when hotels won’t be quite so expensive and perhaps we’ll even have a better idea of other things around San Diego we’d like see or do.

One thing is clear: that this is a trip for Comic Con. Given the ticket snags and the potential Spending of More Money That Could Have Been Avoided, Ben is now asking another question that’s hard for me to answer with a solid, objective line of reasoning:

Why is it so important that you go this year?

Well, considering my line of reasoning for why I need to go to Comic Con in the first place, it’s no wonder that this is another difficult question for me to answer. I’ve already put it off twice for various reasons since we moved to Utah, which is within driving distance to California, and I’m scared that if I put it off again this year that something else will come up next year and I’ll never get to go at all.

This last winter, I made the decision to stop floating along in life and to figure out what it is that I want to do so that I could start enjoying life more and regretting less. One of the things that I want to do is to simply get more out of life, which means taking a few more risks (hmm, like freelance writing) and doing/experiencing things that I’ve been putting off for no good reason (like volunteering at the Sundance Film Festival).

I want to go to Comic Con this year because I have no idea where I will be in my life at this point next year. I have the time now, but the main barrier is the cost. But do I expect to do this every year? Not unless somebody else pays for me to go. Do I think that the experience will be worth every penny? Most definitely.

Now it’s just a matter of making it happen.

So there I was, elated as all get-out to be heading to San Diego for Comic Con. My hotel has been reserved for a while, and I’ve been keeping an eye on airline tickets prices and availability of passes for the con itself. The 4-day passes sold out a couple weeks ago, but individual day passes were still advertised as available on the sidebar of every page of the Comic Con website.

I started to register for passes, knowing that I would have have to buy individual passes for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On page 3 of the registration process, there is devastating news next to the check box to buy a pass for Saturday:

THIS SELECTION IS SOLD OUT.

I couldn’t quite believe it. I’d been so patient and finally had all my ducks in a row, and then at THIS STAGE I find out that my plans are all crap?

Then I checked eBay for secondary marketing pricing… we’re talking about $200 for just an adult Saturday pass, that originally cost $35, and double that for the 4-day pass that originally cost $75. The trip is going to be expensive enough as it is, and I detest the idea of paying several times the original cost of anything on the “gray” market.

WTF am I going to do? Ben felt really bad when I told him yesterday, and probably worse because I was pretty upset about it. It’s not the end of the world, so in that respect I feel my attitude is immature… but it’s been a long time since I really had my heart set on something and then had it ingloriously yanked away from me.

Thursday and Friday tickets are still available at the original price, but I know that Saturday is the biggest day and I’m still trying to figure out if it’s worth going for just the first two days. I don’t have long to decide, because Friday tickets are closer to being sold out. How do I know this? Oh, there’s this hidden page on the Comic Con website (that I found yesterday after spiraling into panic) that is quite helpful because it shows the percentage of tickets sold for each individual day. WHY DIDN’T I FIND THAT SOONER? Oh, beacuse it’s conveniently bypassed when you click on the “Register Online Now” link that’s on the right, which takes you immediately to registration form. Did I mention that under that link, on every page, there’s a bright blue banner that advertises One-Day Memberships Still Available! and lists Saturday with no mention of being sold out. Frustrating, to say the least.

In any case, I don’t have long to make my decision. I’m still leaning towards going, but it’s going to be very tough knowing that I will be forced to skip all of Saturday’s events.

Thanks to everyone who commented in answer to yesterday’s question of why I need to go to Comic Con. He read my post, read your comments, and posted a grumbly comment about your collective persuasiveness. Aside from him geeking out just a tiny bit about the mention of the Zombie movie marathon, which he had forgotten about, we didn’t talk about it much.

We emailed back and forth a little this morning (because real social interaction is for weenies) and here is a snippet of the latest email from Ben:

Sigh.

I don’t welcome your observation that I’m close to “giving in” to going to San Diego.  But the fact is, you’re correct.  The real (unresolved) question is, do we drive or fly?

OMFGBBQBACON I’M GOING TO THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!!!!!!!!1111111111111

*getting up to shake my geeky self in tempo with the House techno I’m listening to right now*

Okay, calming down for a second to let the world know that Ben is a manly man who never gives in easily and he is really just doing this for me, because he loves me, and that HE IS MY FAVORITE PERSON ALIVE ON THIS PLANET RIGHT NOW AND FOREVER and we’ll be BFF and *mwah* I love you, sweetie!

Calm just doesn’t seem like an emotion I’m able to write with right now. Sorry.

Let me give you a little insight into the timeline that has led up this glorious moment: I was already past the stage of dropping hints when I first blogged about wanting to go to Comic Con on February 22. This has been a long campaign and I’d like to thank all of my supporters out there who have helped make my dream a reality. If it weren’t for you, I might be… stuck in Utah being horribly grouchy and pouty from July 24-29. Ugh.

And special thanks to my one and only, Ben, who just made my day, month, year, life, etc.

23 Days left until Comic Con… excuse me while I go obsess about planning the trip. (Don’t worry, I’ve had the hotel reserved for a couple months already. Just in case.)

I really want to go to the San Diego Comic Con this year, and have nearly convinced Ben to take the time off from work to go with me. But he’s asked me what is turning into an existential question:

Why do I want to go to Comic-Con?

The easy answer is that “I just do, and please please please, I’ll do anything to make it happen…” But that’s not buying me the free pass I was hoping for.

Ben and I are both fair and reasonable people who like to agree with each other (or at least give consent) before making most medium-to-large decisions, and if I feel strongly about something I can often come up with a compelling argument to sway him in my direction. (Unless it’s about buying organizational storage or gadgets–he’s on to my weakness and I have to fight really hard for those.)

Though Ben is a geek in his own right, he doesn’t really care about going to the Comic Con and is having trouble seeing past the number of dollars that we’ll have to spend to make the trip happen (especially since I was just laid off, but I know we can make it work out okay financially). The thing is, if/when I go, I want him to be there with me and to share the experience. So I’m not going to up and go without him or storm off without his consent (though I did get huffy at one point early on and mentioned that was a possibility).

Ben and I have attended a couple Wizard World conventions (when we lived within driving distance of Chicago and Philadelphia) and he doesn’t think that Comic-Con will be much different. To be fair, I definitely enjoyed attending them more than he did. He likened it to taking me to a museum, which he generally dislikes because I have to study everything that catches my interest which means that we’re usually there much longer than he wants to be.

But my friend Liz and her husband will also be there to hang out with, and I’ve sweetened the deal and suggested that we also attend a San Diego Padres game. I’ve added a layer of complexity to this vacation and figured out how to spend a fun day at Sea World. I’ve tempted him with lots of delicious suggestions for dining.  Informed him that Mexico is just a trolley ride away. Mentioned that there was a Zombie movie marathon last year, which definitely piqued his interest. I’ve offered… a list of other things that might also pique his interest.

Then last night, after several weeks of serious attempts to acquire the green light on this geeky little vacation, Ben looked at me and said in a tone that I know means he’s about to break: “Why exactly do you want to go to Comic-Con so badly?”

And I faltered. I couldn’t pinpoint a reason when put on the spot.

I was imagining the swirl of people with their own motivations for being at the con: to buy exclusive comics and toys that would always remain in mint condition, to sell products, to hawk memorabilia, to be discovered as an artistic genius, to be the first to learn about all the new geeky stuff that will be released in the next year, to meet geeky celebrities, to attend panels and learn the answers to all the geekiest questions, to report on all things geeky, and to get some serious swag.

To be, for a short period of time, with a huge community of like-obsessed people in the same place at the same time and not understand until later the full extent of the experience.

To be a part of it all as a people-watching fangirl.

It’s hard to explain the giddy delight that swells up inside me when I think of this new adventure; when I imagine seeing San Diego for the first time and then entering that great convention hall full of the unknown-but-certain-to-satisfy geeky pleasures. Maybe it’s similar to the way a gambling addict feels when they enter a casino (but, you know, less destructive in the long run).

I know I’m not the biggest geek out there, but I’m partial to many geeky pursuits and there’s just something about the whole geek culture that keeps me wanting more. Wanting to know more, wanting to see more, wanting to be more. How else can I summarize my need to experience the Comic-Con? And how I feel a sense of urgency because I shrugged off my desire to go in previous years and this year just feels like the year to me?

Is just wanting to be a part of it a good enough reason to go?

My desire to attend Comic-Con is definitely more articulated here than what I could muster in conversation, but I’m still having a hard time determining how to answer to Ben’s question. Maybe Ben will understand more if he reads this post.

I’d appreciate any comments that might help me explain why I want to go to Comic-Con so badly.

Comic Con 2008 is July 24-17. I have been wanting to go since my first con experience at Wizard World Philly in 2003 (hey, I was a late con bloomer, okay?).

[Also because of Comic Book: The Movie, starring Mark Hamill. It's my favorite mockumentary. Netflix has it, but if you're any sort of comics fan, you probably should just go ahead and buy it. Make sure to watch all of the extras, which mostly consist of  documentary footage of the mockumentary.]

Now that I live in Utah, a mere 10 hour drive from San Diego, my desire to attend Comic Con has grown stronger. The hardest part is justifying the expense of the trip, because to stay anywhere in proximity of the convention center means shelling out a couple hundred bucks a night.

The second hardest part is to convince Ben that the cost is worth it and that he needs to come along. He’s not into comics or the whole geeky convention scene as much as I am, so that has been a little bit of a challenge. The San Diego Padres will be playing a home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, though… and a baseball games always a way to draw him toward my side.

But regardless of what the final outcome of my wishing and hoping and planning may be, yesterday I took a solid step forward.

I have a hotel reservation in San Diego! It’s 5 blocks away from the trolley line, which will drop us off right in front of the convention center. And it has free breakfast and free internet access. I was able to get a (relatively) good rate, even though it’s still waaaay more than I’m used to paying for a hotel room. Then again, I used to work for a hotel and got insanely cheap rates at any chain hotel in the family.

The next major decision (after Ben says yes to going) will be whether to fly or drive. With the cost of gas creeping toward $4 a gallon, it might be worth a little extra money to NOT spend 10-12 hours in the car together and opt instead for a 2 hour flight.

Anyway, I’m totally stoked and will probably be very, very crushed if it turns out that I don’t (finally) go this year. Ben, are you reading? CRUSHED.

This past weekend, Ben and I had planned to drive to Las Vegas for a much-needed long weekend away from Utah and the house. Unfortunately, the house kept us here… because we decided that it wouldn’t be prudent to spend money in Vegas immediately after making the first, very-very large payment for our roof.

Being responsible. Teh Suck.

(Besides, this gives me more ammo to push for a trip to San Diego Comic Con in July!)

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that our roof is finished and the skylights that we purchased in October are finally installed? That HUGE headache might be easier to write about after it’s really done, because we still have to fix drywall in several places upstairs and stain the inside trim of the skylights (which we could have done before they were installed, as it turns out, but we were so occupied with finding someone to install them that we never even took them out of the box). And I have to call the manufacturer from whom we purchased said skylights because one of the handles is broken and the pole for opening the mini-blinds (that we still need to install on the inside) is not long enough for my short arms like Sales Guy said it would be. Ben doesn’t even need the pole because of his height.  He has a freakishily large armspan, not unlike that of a condor.

(I was going to say golden condor, and then link to the Wikipedia page about the freakish 30-foot or whatever wingspan of that amazing bird. But then I discovered that the cartoon condor I imagine every time I think of a condor was actually an ornithopter [a mechanical bird] from the shown-on-Nickelodeon-in-the-eighties Japanese TV show “The Mysterious Cities of Gold.” Damn cable television interfering with factual knowledge. See, creators of cartoons? See what power you have over the young minds that turn into older minds? Oh, wait, you were already QUITE aware of that power, and you perpetually laugh in the face of responsibility that should accompany it, don’t you?)

Wow, I’m already way off topic from what I thought I was going to write about.

Where was I? The damn house? God, do I have anything else to talk about? Of course not. I bought a house and it will never ever be anywhere close to finished in the way that I once imagined. Oh, those were nice times… times when I thought that the house would be “pretty much perfect” in a couple years. HA!  HA HA!  I laugh at your naïvete, former self!

Ahem.

This weekend, after having a nice anniversary dinner at the Macaroni Grill (after waiting an hour for a table because it was also BYU graduation weekend but we didn’t mind because we talked and “reconnected” and all that smooshy relationship stuff), we accomplished some more house-related stuff and tried not to think about how we could be in Vegas right now, dammit. We pitched the oldish and somewhat mildew-y tent, which I then spent precious daytime hours cleaning with a sponge, smelly lysol solution and a garden hose. That was a sonofabitch to clean, because it’s a huge 4-16 person tent (depending on the size of the people and their stuff, I guess).

Incidentally, if you own an Armadillo tent made by Walrus, that company went out of business and there are NO ONLINE INSTRUCTION MANUALS TO BE FOUND. If I’m irresponsible enough to let my tent grow some mildew, how could Tent Company possibly expect me to hold on to the instructions for setting it up? Anyway, with the help of Ben’s gargantuan armspan and our combined we-should-be-in-Vegas brainpower, we figured it out. Ben retreated to the garage to clean (and maybe find one of the fifty screwdrivers he owns so that he doesn’t have to borrow my ONE ratchet screwdriver that I keep very close tabs on because I need to know where to find one when I need it).

We had also planned to paint that third coat of red on the family room walls, but didn’t. Ben painted a couple of coats of white on the top half of the back wall that primed for red, and also put a coat of white on the ceiling. It’s looking really sweet. Hopefully this week we’ll buckle down and spend a whole evening just doing a final nice, even red coat so we don’t have to think about it anymore and can enjoy the red room.

What other exciting, boring stuff went on? Ben changed the oil in his car and I cleaned up inside and did the cookin’ like a proper wife. Yeah, we had breakfast for three meals in a row! We also planned out where we will transplant the weirdly placed tulips and the still-surviving young hawthorn trees in our yard (farther away from the house than they are now, thanks to stupid previous flip-this-house homeowners) and where we will plant two more trees. And all of that will help decide where the future sprinkler system will go because if you want grass in Utah, you have to water it, and Ben has been using a garden hose and moving sprinklers around the old fashioned way for two summers and it’s time we install a more efficient, less time-consuming system.

Ah, gardening. I also spent a little time with my two square foot gardens. It’s a neat system and I recommend it for fisrt-time gardeners, even if you’re like me and really are only sort of on the ball in the third year of gardening. My gardens have not yet looked like Mel’s do in his book, video or website, though.

There, that’s my weekend update. Stay tuned for LOTS more excitement. Maybe someday!

If you want to read my random thoughts throughout the day, and I haven’t posted on my blog, maybe you’ll find something interesting in my new twitter feed:

http://twitter.com//innergeek

I think that this may come in handy if/when I go to San Diego Comic Con in July, since I can post a thought to twitter from my mobile phone. How exciting! Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about Comic Con and how much I really want to go.

If you’re in the San Francisco area, I hope that you’re going to WonderCon for me. I’m really hoping to make it to the San Diego Comic Con this year for the first time. I’ve never lived closer to California, and yet after 2.5 years in Utah I still haven’t visited.

I may be going to San Francisco for a couple of days to see the big sights (Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Pacific Ocean, etc.) while my Norwegian visitors are here in March. The only other time I’ve been in California was in San Francisco, but I don’t have any memories because I was only a year old. Bummer.

How’s this for weirdness: as I was typing that last “San Francisco,” Shirley Simms was singing the name through my computer speakers–I’m listening to the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs: Part 1 and I didn’t realize that track number seven “Come Back From San Francisco” had started playing.

Now here’s something that we all have to wait for, no matter where in the world we live: the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. I like the novella (though it’s not my favorite Neil Gaiman book), but the movie looks like it will be absolutely delicious… it’s an animated stop-motion film done by the same people who brought you that little cult classic called Nightmare Before Christmas. The Soundtrack will be by They Might Be Giants. Squeeeee!

Neil Gaiman just announced this little (official) teaser trailer:

January 2009 is very far away. I’d put it on my calendar, but I don’t have a 2009 calendar yet!