SDCC...That's Comic-Con, yo.

Hello Hello, how's it going my friends? Good, I hope! I'm just fan-effing-tastic myself. and yes, that was me trying not to be a potty mouth, but simultaneously expressing my distaste in my situation, haha. But alas, there is a good amount stuff to be happy with, so let's skim over the unpleasant to get to the awesome, hall we?

In a brief update, Crappy New Guy got fired after 2 months of being trained and just never getting it. They are bringing in another new guy who won't begin training for another 2 weeks. So at least another month before my shift and life changes/evolves into what I want it to be. Really, really bummed about this, but what can I do? Suck it up. That's the only answer. And yes, I rolled my eyes at that answer.

But I don't want to be all down about crap I can't control, so let's talk about something fun. Comic-Con is this week! Woot! I'm SOOOOOO pumped! So in my excitement I was going through the daily schedules and kinda picked out the things I want to check out the most, and figured I'd share them with yous guys. Keep in mind that it's impossible to get into everything you want to see at Comic-Con. One room can only hold so many people, so I wrote in a bunch of alternative things in case what I wanted ended up being full.

Thursday...

First things first, in the morning there is a panel introducing the plans for a Star Wars Kinect game. There are a few panels regarding various Star Wars things, and this one looks like one of the better ones. The problem is that you have to get in lines for the big panels really early, which often rules these sorts of panels out.

Later there is a panel about something blah blah who cares Felicia Day is in it. :) Mmmmm... It would be between this one and a panel on Writing an "Epic Novel" which authors like George R.R. Martin and Kevin Anderson. We all know which one I SHOULD go to. If I hit Felicia up, I'd have time for the Blizzard panel at 1300... And no, I'm not talking about snow. I'm curious for the Blizzard panel because I've recently gotten into playing Starcraft 2... and because Diablo 3 looks interesting. My reason for wanting to avoid such a panel is getting sucked back into WoW, which I definitely don't want.

After that, the big dilemma of the day. Game of Thrones panel is happening at the same time as the big Fox panel. To get into the Fox panel, I'd probably have to miss Blizzard, so I'm on the fence. Big movie news? Or my new favorite TV show? WHAT DO I DO?!?! OH, I have an answer... at the same time is the Star Wars Old Republic Bioware Panel. SHIT! haha. I'll probably hit that up in hopes of a release date and leave empty on the inside. I'm supposed to be a Gamer now, so... yeah. Damn.

Directly after TOR, there is a panel for City of Heroes, a game I abandoned ages ago. A game I loved so much more than WoW. I shouldn't go, but you have to wonder... why is such an old game holding a panel at Comic-Con? Could we be seeing a sequel? Don't I have to find out? At the same time as this, Robert Rodriguez is holding a panel. If I want to spend time with my buddy Frank, I should be here instead. Pretty sure he has it circled already.

Otherwise Thursday is relatively slow. Showtime is holding a panel and the cast of Dexter will be there, but at the same time there is a Panel on Voice Acting and how to break into that industry. I'm sort of intrigued, to be honest. So... yeah.

Friday?

Assuming I can get into Hall H, Friday will probably be spent in one spot. Underworld is showing, Dreamworks will put on a show, and then Sony. Lots of big name movies and actors. Beforehand, we might have time to hit Walking Dead. If Hall H doesn't work out, Legendary Pictures is going to show a few interesting projects. Falling Skies has a panel in the afternoon during Dreamworks and Sony. The New Spartacus show will be there during the second half of the Sony panel. So there are a few options, but really it's going to depend on our luck.

Saturday!

Saturday, I'm thinking about staying in. Haha. We're staying at the Hilton Bayfront, and their Indigo Room is going to be showing a bunch of Panels during the week. Saturday it goes Attack of the Show, Community, legendary Comics, Joss Whedon, The Guild. With a few other meh things smushed in between. otherwise I have my eyes on Terra Nova in the morning, and then trying to get into Hall H again.

Hall H will have Immortals, Snow White and the Huntsman, and of course... Kevin Smith. If Hall H doesn't happen, Guild Wars 2 has a panel going, Assassin's Creed, the new Airbender cartoon, Dark Horse Comics/Bioware, and then maybe a new show called Good Vibes, which I've never heard of but has a few cool actors.

In the evening, I'm looking to possibly hit up the Star Wars Trivia deal, but it depends on how early my friends want to get out to dinner.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Sunday I'll probably spend my day walking around the main floor. Glee has a panel, but I'll never admit to going to it, if I do. Allen Gregory looks good. Love me some Jonah Hill. There is a Browncoats panel for us Firefly fans, and then depending on when we leave, possibly another voice acting sort of panel. So we'll see!

Obviously, there will be TONS of other things there. I'm hoping I can get my camera working, otherwise I'll be filling my phone to the brim with pictures. I promise some sort of epic post on here, talking about all of my adventures, when I get back. Hopefully with pictures and everything. No promises, but I'll do my darndest. Until then, I hope everything is cool with you guys. Try not to envy me too much when you're doing your usual, boring stuff this week. :) I'll catch you guys on the flip side!

Oh and don't forget...


Dream Big,


Ian

A Second Rate Gamer and Change is here... Maybe.

So the last couple of weeks have been kinda zany/hectic/jumbled for me. Work up until last Friday was crazy. Everyone was calling in sick and taking vacation and I was working by myself doing the job of 3 people, and WHOA! It was craziness. Even still, I had the Youtube bug, and despite how crazy things were at work, it's always been easy for me to go home and play video games and just relax. Well, now I've transformed that routine into a job... and in a way, I'm really happy about it, and in another way I just hate myself for destroying my favorite carefree activity.

So here is the deal. I created a channel on Youtube and titled myself the Second Rate Gamer. /secondrategamer if that wasn't made clear :-P And so in a little over a week, I've uploaded 8 videos and gotten 20 subscribers. I don't know if thats considered fast or slow, and honestly I don't really care either way. It's pretty exciting to have anyone watching at all. Am I good at this? Not really, but the process of commentating over gameplay is actually pretty fun. The downside to this new hobby is that it's easily the most time consuming thing I've EVER DONE! Seriously. You have to play the game to get the gameplay. Insert a few hours. You have to convert the video once you capture it. 15-30 minutes. You have to do the commentary over the video. usually 30-60 minutes. You have to render the video. 30-60 minutes. You have to upload the video to youtube. 160-190 minutes. Not counting the time playing the game, you're looking at 4-5 hours for a 10 minute video. That's sick. As a result, I haven't been reading at all, though I think part of that was from me burning through 6 books in a week and reading myself to death.

Plus, I'm fighting the urge to re-read Deathly Hallows before the movie comes out next week.

Either way, I am enjoying myself and making the best out of the fact that I've been trapped in quicksand for two months. Which is a nice little segue to some upcoming news. I was informed yesterday that, one way or the other, I will find out if my shift is going to change this weekend. One of two things will happen. One, the crappy new guy is deemed acceptable and the graveyard guy now takes the weekend off. He then starts Monday in my current shift, and I start work on Tuesday in my new shift. Two, crappy new guy is deemed crappy, is released, and I stay in the quicksand. So please, please keep your fingers crossed for me. Sadly, I was informed that we could all be moved back to the shifts we're in now if the new guy screws up too much in the following weeks, assuming he's kept. So that would suck, but only time will tell if that is going to happen so I'm not going to let myself worry about it.

If I move into my new shift next week, I'll probably spend the week catching up on sleep. Then the next week is Comic-Con. So I expect by the last week of the month, I'll be digging back in and starting up on Dream Quest again. Hopefully Comic-Con will help to rev my engines in those regards too, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm really stoked about the prospect, though, and with any luck these updates will revert back to their initial purpose of talking about my book! Until then...


Dream Big,

Ian