I need to get back in the swing of blogging. The sheer length of time I’ve gone on Twitter alone is unspeakably lame, and friends and family alike are becoming increasingly frustrated with the prolonged string of half-indecipherable, 140-character hints of what’s going on in my life. So here’s what’s been going on lately!
Work: A couple weeks ago, I was moved to the back room. While it’s tragic that I am no longer sitting near Tommy, an endless fountain of amusing non-sequiturs, I am now blessed with WINDOWS. My stir-craziness factor has diminished significantly. The windows look out onto the uninterrupted brick siding of another building some twelve feet away, but I nevertheless revel in the occasional birds, diffused sunlight, and glimpses at the actual weather conditions my beloved window offers.
The reason for the move is to reflect a change in the structure of the company. We now have a separate Asset Department responsible for characters and props. Previously, animators were responsible for making their own props. Character folks (like me) have always been separate. Once the few hiccups are ironed out, it looks like this system is going to be a lot more efficient. Yay efficiency!
I have also been named Texture Tsar (okay, that’s the name I made up, but it’s more fun that Textures Lead or whatever the official title was), so I’m getting tasked with occasional opportunities to step out of Character Land and do some serious Making Stuff Pretty. Yay variety! And as far as the characters go, we’re in the process of bringing their quality up another notch, as well. I’m very pleased with the direction we’re going!
Litra-chur: My beloved Kat, who has exquisite taste, has finally pushed me over the tipping point with regard to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga. She lent me the first omnibus at the end of last summer, which I read at a snail’s pace despite my enjoyment of the stories, but only recently did I delve headfirst into the series. I got the rest of the books in audio format and plowed through nine books and three novellas in the past 2 1/2 weeks. I’m almost nervous to start the final book, because I’ll once again be faced with the dilemma of what to read next.
I can feel myself getting sucked into the Reread Rut, as I’d like to reread Princeps’ Fury to refresh my beta-memory as Jim pens First Lord’s Fury, and I’m thinking a reread of Watchmen is in order before the movie comes out, and I definitely want to reread The Name of the Wind before its sequel hits stores on April 7th, and gah. I can’t let myself get boxed in with rereads! Gotta discover something new!
Fandom: This past weekend, I went to New York Comic Con. I had a fantastic time! Friday night, I assembled a crowd of folks from the Jim-Butcher.com forum for dinner at Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, which was quite a hit! In attendance were my forum/IRL hybrid friends Craig, Shecky, and Sue, plus forum members Mark and Allison, a fantastic Harry cosplayer I met at San Diego Comic Con named Matt, and Matt’s friend Jerry. The Dabel Brothers crew was going to join us, but they had some last-minute business that ran long, so they were only able to stop by a few minutes. Afterwards, we huddled in Penn Station, dodging zambonis and homeless people, for a reading of the first chapter of Turn Coat. It was a great start for a delightfully geeky weekend!
Saturday, I donned my Molly costume and hooked up with RPG pal John to meander about the con. We first checked out a fight choreography demo by the Vampire Cowboys, a theatre troupe that performs original, cross-genre plays with a strong stage combat element. I saw their previous show, Fight Girl Battle World, twice last year, and I can’t wait for the opening of their newest creation, Soul Samurai! I’ll have to get a big group together.
Afterward, John and I did some browsing/people watching as we waited for the others from the previous night’s group to arrive. I stopped by the Penguin table to chat with Anne Sowards, Jim’s editor, who gave me a bunch of Dresden buttons to give away on the website. I’ll have to figure out a fun way to determine who gets them! Meanwhile, John geeked out at the neighboring booth, belonging to Phil Foglio, when a group of fans arrived in glorious Girl Genius cosplay.
We then swung by the Comic News Insider booth, in hopes of seeing Kristin and Jimmy. Jimmy is one of the co-hosts of the show, and Kristin had volunteered to booth babe for a time, but Kristin had something far more nefarious up her sleeve! At cons, Jimmy makes a point of dressing in pinstriped vests, going so far as to accuse those similarly attired of “stealing his look.” Because we are pure evil, Kristin and I conspired to dress Kristin in Jimmy’s con uniform. Unfortunately, Jimmy wasn’t there at the time, but I got to greet Kristin and admire her uncanny resemblance to the absent friend.
Next, John and I stopped by the DoctorWhoStore.com booth, where 6th Doctor Colin Baker was wrapping up his signing. I snagged one of the Big Finish audios for my Who-obsessed friend Kat, autographed by the good Doctor himself, and got a picture with him, in which he looks like my cute grandpa. After Colin finished, Doctor Who comics scribe Tony Lee took the autographing table, and I got a few issues of the serial signed as we chatted. I’d gotten to meet him and hang out briefly at the CNI recording a few days prior, and we’d hit it off rather well. It was fun to see him again.
John and I also spent some time dawdling around the Pendragon booth, where Matt, Jerry, and Matt’s girlfriend Nicole were working. Nicole’s creations were flat-out gorgeous, and over the course of the day, I tried on two of the Renaissance dresses and a woman’s leather duster. You bet your sweet bippy I took pictures! I feel in love with one of them, but I didn’t know if I wanted to spend so much on a dress I’d only wear a couple times a year, so I elected to hold off and think about it overnight. Soon, Craig, Shecky, and Sue appeared, and we all trooped off to grab a late lunch.
The afternoon was filled with a performance by the New York Jedi, lots and lots of aimless ambling about the exhibit hall, and some chillage with the Dabel folks. Matt joined us for much of it. I finally got to meet Dresden GN editor David Lawrence in person, and he loaded me up with a bunch of Dabel comics and goodies. We swung back by the Penguin booth and chanced to run into Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy. We had a brief conversation, and I snagged a photo with her. What an unexpected surprise!
Toward the end of the evening, we walked by the DC booth and saw Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons signing posters. There was no way we could get through the line by closing time, so we resolved to bring our copies of Watchmen the next day to be signed then. Finally, we bade farewell to Sue, Shecky, and John, who were only at the con for the day.
Sunday morning was a source of great amusement. I awoke to find a pair of text messages on my phone, one drunken missive timestamped around 3am, waxing lyrical on my finer attributes, and another around 8, apologizing profusely. I will not disclose the identity of said individual, because I am not a cruel person, but suffice it to say, it was hilarious.
Dressed as Delirium, I high-tailed it to the IGN Theatre, where a line was already forming for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse panel two hours before showtime. Because it was painfully obvious what we were all there to see, they con staff either canceled or moved the MegaMan panel that was to be held before it. In line, I met up with Craig, Kristin, Adam (host of the weekly Pushing Daisies viewing parties, back when that was applicable), and fellow NYC Browncoats Kathleen, Simon, and Gypsy.
The panel was a delight. Though I’d met Nathan Fillion at SDCC and Amber Benson the day before, I’d never before seen a panel with any Whedon alumni, and here was Joss himself! Also present was Tahmoh Penikett, aka Helo on BSG, and Matt Rousch of TV Guide. The program reported that Eliza Dushku and Dichen Lachman were also supposed to be in attendance, but any disappointment was more than compensated for when Joss revealed the first act of the Dollhouse pilot, which looked fabulous. I can’t wait for Friday’s premiere!
By that point, the con was nearly over, but I still managed to squeeze in some last-minute awesomeness. An hour before it was slated to start, we staked on spots in line for the Dave Gibbons signing. We befriended another line-waiter, who volunteered to save out spots in line so we could enjoy ourselves for said hour, and went off in search of last-minute fun. We returned to Pendragon to poke Matt, and I saw that the dress I’d fallen in love with the previous day had been sold. Guess that made my decision for me! I’m glad such a lovely dress is getting a good home.
We returned to the Gibbons table with ten minutes to spare and found an utter mob scene. The line snaked around itself four deep! They were processing fans ASAP, so there was no time for conversation with the man, but it was still cool to see him in person and get his signature in my copy of Watchmen.
And that was it! I was rather stunned toward the end to realize that I only attended a single panel, as I’d meticulously planned out a schedule for myself ahead of time, but when it came down to it, spending time with my friends felt like a much higher priority. I feel like a Lifetime movie. And now I can’t wait for ConDFW the 20th-22nd!
And that’s all I have to say about that for the moment. Hopefully, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’ll be able to go back to blogging about silly things?
