July 28, 2013
I think we all know I’m crap at anniversaries, right? Well, I’m pretty sure this was my tenth anniversary of attending Comic-Con. Or 11th. Whichever it was, it was AWESOME.
Welcome to San Diego, Comic-Con Style
We had to make a lot of compromises throughout the Con due to schedule conflicts and I was at least a bit amazed: they were none of them disappointing. I rarely experience that “Fear of Missing Out” except at SDCC when I hate giving up even a minute of hard-earned fun. Other than having to reconcile myself to not getting Preview Night, which wasn’t really a choice, we had barrels of fun. But that’s ok, we spent Wednesday with family friends and then goofing off at the close of the Petco Park exhibits.
Thursday was full of floor time to make up for missing out on the usual Wednesday Night scouting run. I bought seven TPBs, two to give away, commissioned a tiny pet portrait from the talented Katie Cook (@katiecandraw, now of My Little Pony fame), and got to chat with both her and another talented creator, David Peterson (of the gloriously cute MouseGuard). The creator and artists of Elephantmen were again, super funny and super nice. I wished Pia Guerra were there hanging out with them when I stopped by. I missed her if she did.
I blew through one-third of my $300 allowance in a day. !!
Scratching every possible itch I had:
Top left: A DUCK TALES GOLD VAULT TO DIVE INTO.
Top right: Game of Thrones trolley station stops.
Bottom left and right: Dog-Friendly on the floor and across the street. ConDogs were dressed up as Princess Service Dog, Scout Service Dog, BatDog, DogRobin, and casual we’re here to play Dogs.
Top left: Blood Drive at the Omni Hotel
Top right: Molly Lewis, singing about her offer to bear Stephen Fry’s baby
Bottom left: Marian Call, pre-Browncoat song
Bottom right: All the ladies together!
I’ve never been one to go to concerts but lately, indie artists who are both a delight in person and amazing on stage have been creeping their way into my schedule.
My attempt to give blood post-weight gain was denied, but we basked in the musics of Marian Call, The DoubleClicks, and Molly Lewis at a coffeeshop later and that salved my wounded pride of being rejected. I was so excited! And then so dejected. The guy who gave me my consolation t-shirt saw my face said, “Oh nooooo….” Oh well.
The Money Recap
… and “never again”…
After totaling the cash and credit card spending, it looks like I’ve only spent $220 of my $300 personal allowance.
Our hotel rate was bumped up a bit because it was evidently booked wrong, but since we usually share rooms, it keeps our accommodations cost to a reasonable rate. This time, the room-sharing was a bit of a disaster and has gotten one person bumped off my list of “I’d be fine never seeing you again” forever.
By common consent, shared rooms get divvied up into personal zones. You don’t put your stuff on another person’s bed if you’re not either married or related to them, you share the common desk areas and split the use of nightstands down the middle: you get the one you’re closest to and you don’t spill over into someone else’s. And you always respect the sleep! You don’t make noise when anyone is still sleeping, clattering and clanging, slamming doors and such. It doesn’t matter if they’re the last one to wake! (This hasn’t always been me, either.) And snoring? You warn your roommates if you snore. These are all courtesies observed without discussion by all roommates we’ve had, male or female and we’ve generally had decent rooming experiences.
Shared rooms can be a somewhat tight fit and we go out of our way to be more polite: asking if people are night or morning shower-ers and what schedules look like so we don’t cause a bathroom traffic jam, checking to make sure that no one wants the bathroom or shared surfaces when you’re about to monopolize it, etc.
This time? Oh man. We checked into the room after dropping off our stuff, claiming one bed and the area around the bed, furthest in the room to give our next roomies a clear path to the bed by the bathroom and door. We came back later that night to find that Roomie 1 had strewn stuff all over his bed, gone to the far side of our bed and claimed the whole desk with his electronics and food and beer and trash was on our nightstand, the floor, and the desk. He’d basically pooped on every surface. He didn’t shut down the computer until nearly 1 am, took a phone call in the room at 445 am and conducted a full freakin’ conversation, then let his phone alarms go off multiple times until 6am. Then at 630, he decided work at the desk next to our bed instead of taking the laptop back to his bed, so as to put space between us and his clicks, clacks and beeps. Then he acted put out when I lost my temper and asked him to leave the room as he’d keep me up for the past two hours already and I was sick with exhaustion.
That was Day 1. If you wonder if I had strangled him by Day 3, that’d be a valid question. He was passive-aggressive when he wasn’t being downright rude, talking through me to PiC. What a jerk. Once we get his repayment for the room, I wash my hands of him. You can be certain that I set a deadline for that payment.
The rest of the Con was fantastic and worth every penny. But I will likely never allow someone to room with us again without a full background check. I’d simply say no roomies ever again but it’s such a good way to save money and hang out with good friend-roomies that I don’t hate it.
June 26, 2013
The Exhibitor list for this year’s Comic-Con has been posted. Time to start plotting who to visit, which booths to patronize.
Does this ever get old? Normally the answer would be *insane cackle* “Of course not.” And in a lot of ways, nope. It really doesn’t. Mecca, after all.
But even I have to admit, after the Badging Debacle of 2011 (wherein my intrepid beloved never-to-be-sufficiently-thanked husband sat up ALL NIGHT among hordes of other similarly intrepid fans to buy our tickets for 2012’s SDCC solely because he knew that the prospect of not going to SDCC the next year would cause me *hic hic hic* “But .. but .. ok .. but but” *hic hic* speech-impaired grief), and after the Sit at the Computer Ready for Anything and losing out on Preview Night 4-day passes Debacle of 2012, a little of my pure, shining, glorious joy in going to Mecca has been tarnished.
I hate crowds, I’m not a huge fan of people in general and you know how I feel about paying ridiculous prices. And yet I’ll plow headfirst into every one of those conditions for Comic-Con, because there’d always been something utterly uplifting about going to SD just for fun. The one time in my year when work wasn’t allowed, when it was completely about fun and nothing else. When it was ok to spend money on myself if I wanted to, and not spend 3 days looking for a bargain first, and then talking myself out of it.
Life isn’t nearly so bleak these days 🙂 but there’s something about keeping the traditions originally built into the Annual Pilgrimage that’s homey and comforting. I started out watching every penny, parking out back of beyond, staying with friends because they’re awesome, and buying gifts for people six months early because you can find unique gifts there. Most of it sort of stuck.
It’s the one time in the year we spend quality time with certain friends; it’s awesome if we can find good presents, or at least ideas, well ahead of Christmas; walking the Con floor from end to end is like navigating an obstacle course collecting bonus gifts on the way. It’s really too bad we can’t hit a box for bonus coins or lives but this is good enough.
In recent years, the Con has grown exponentially, promotional events and booths spilling over the edges of the Convention Center itself into neighboring hotels, into the Gaslamp District and clear through to PetCo Park. It’s a sight to see, I tell you.
The main casualty of this growth is their ability to properly sell tickets. It’s become a situation where attendees can’t buy tickets in a sane manner on site for the next year, the vendor managing sales cannot serve up tickets online only without servers collapsing under the weight of anxious buyers and no one knows how many of what kind of tickets will be sold at any given time. It’s a bit of a mess.
There’s no longer a guarantee that this year won’t be the last year that we can get tickets and that’s terribly dispiriting. It seems easier to get a ticket if you went the previous year because you get two shots at the ticket purchasing gauntlet so once you drop out of attending, you almost can’t plan to go back. (Pessimist.)
On the other hand, if this is the last year, we’re going to make the most of it. (And look, I typed that whole statement without having to hold my breath or tearing up. I’m finally making my peace with it. Probably.)
Which means: we’re staying at a hotel in the Gaslamp District at conference rates (only hotel we could get at the time), sharing out the cost by rooming with friends, and planning to make the most of what little time we have left. I have a lot more flexibility with regard to work than I ever have before, so there’s that.
:: Have you got any travel/fun-only traditions? Any that you’re going to have to (or have had to) let go of?
July 23, 2012
Annual Pilgrimage: San Diego!
The Experience.
This was the quietest year since I first started attending. Not in terms of the actual Con but in terms of personal experience. I needed to be quiet and low-intensity, so I was. And that was weird. But it was the right note, I think.
I balanced my floor time with panel time, none of the television/media panels though because I avoid those and spent most of my money directly on creators and artists.
Jeph Jacques’s Tumbler post noted precisely one of the things I have been noticing (er, not the light crowds on the floor though) in the recent years. I am not a fan of the ever-increasing emphasis on Hollywood, television, and big media companies that dominate to such a massive degree that it destabilizes the Con ecosystem.
When you have so very many people spending more than 12-24 hours at a stretch waiting in lines for something they may not even get into and sacrificing Con time to do it, there’s something wrong with the system. I actively choose not to attend those panels even if I do think hearing the latest on Bones, the Big Bang Theory, the Hobbit, Dr. Who or any of those other shows would be neat. For me, it’s not worth the loss of time, energy and opportunity cost. For some, it’s part of the fun, or it’s worth it. I’m too rickety for that but I’m also not at Con for that particular experience.
I am a bit disappointed that my own energies were at such an ebb that I didn’t get the chance to meet up with many personal friends or acquaintances. The list of people I wanted to see and hang out with is far too long to list. But I’m not going to dwell on it: next year, Con, or trip – I’ll make that happen.
Favorite new people to meet.
@justjenn was at her booth – I missed her the few times I buzzed her booth last year. This year I lucked out the first pass. I got to tell her that I love her recipes. We got to sample her delicious cookies.
The cookies had to be photographed before we could eat them. Because how neat! & Sarcasmo gift tags. I know somebodies who will enjoy them. 😉
Nate Powell of Top Shelf Comix and independent comic creator. Super nice dude and seriously hardworking. I had to buy all his books that he had at the show to support him. Devoured two of them on the flight back – and they were good.
Some Neat Things.
I thought of fellow blogger-friend Moom when I saw this.
Artist and Illustrator Nidhi Chanani had adorable prints and greeting cards. She also has an Etsy shop. (Pardon the shine, that was due to my insistence on immediately photo-ing, not her art.)
The financial breakdown.
Hotel: The Sheraton Mission Valley was quoted at $185/night. Happily, PiC and I were joined by budget-minded SDCC-lovin’ roommates at the last minute and we were all happy to split the bill.
Our room was fine but the bathroom was downright disgusting. It was obviously not cleaned since the last guests: there were hairs in the sink and the tub and bits and pieces of what looked like gunk and chunks of dried blood? I was not looking too closely. The toilet wouldn’t stop running, overflowing and flooding the bathroom, despite our best efforts to fix it ourselves. This is normally a very simple fix. We had to call for maintenance to deal with it more than once before it stopped.
Our roomie @theroseinbloom kicked butt getting on Twitter about the state of the room. I was surprised how quickly the hotel actually got right in touch to deal. She even got them to offer a comped night and comped breakfasts for the rest of our stay. (Grossly, the cleaning never happened.)
Final cost: $625 for party of four, lodgings / $15 tips at breakfast / $5 housekeeping tip = (our cost) $332.50
Savings: $205, comped room / $13 x 3 x 4, value of buffet breakfasts over remainder of stay = $156 = (our cost) $180.50
Car Rental: Using Carrentals.com on ebates.com, I compared rates and Enterprise was, not surprisingly, one of the more painfully expensive companies. But, after a really crap experience I’ve yet to blog with another company, I’d decided some few months ago that it wasn’t worth saving twenty dollars just to go through that sort of hassle again.
Renting with Enterprise has always been a fast in the door and out in a car process. Only this time, we were out so quickly, it took me until we hit the freeway to realize the car reeked of smoke. It was nauseating. But we simply didn’t have time to turn back and trade the car back.
With a sore throat, the next night, I called in a complaint – I didn’t want to take the risk of not establishing the timeline of the smoke occurring before our pickup of the car and be saddled with any associated charges. We aren’t smokers and we don’t smoke in rentals! Also, it made me feel ill and my throat hurt.
At the return, I mentioned the issue again. I gently made it clear that it was not due to our abuse of the car. I was offered an upgrade for our next rental but that’s not generally useful for us, so I thanked her but asked for a discount instead. She removed a day’s charge from the bill on the spot.
Final cost: $44
Savings: $31
Purchases: This year was pretty me-oriented. We’d had unusual travel plans this year, so we had to travel much more lightly than usual and I had to buy less than years past. About half the books and merchandise I bought were for myself, and the other half were gifts. Typically I only buy gifts but I didn’t mind having something for myself!
Final Cost: ~ $200
Savings: $46, either “bulk” discounts from any single creator or the occasional discount shop.
Go figure it took fairly shoddy service to keep our costs low, but whatever works. We’re willing to speak up over less than decent products or competent services.
All in all, a lovely Con. Friends had pretty great experiences too, from what I can tell, more lively than mine as they were up to it and I’m glad for them.
July 30, 2011
The sticker shock has worn off a bit, thankfully. I was just sweeping up Doggle’s fur and thinking about how it probably seemed like I was dwelling on the money of it, rather than the fun of the weekend.
A few reasons … this is where I talk about my money, I don’t talk about it anywhere else really. So I talk about the money first and foremost to get it straightened out in my mind where I stand. And when I’m tired, I worry. I worry in general, and I worry about money specifically. There was also some guilt associated with: how dare you spend money on fun? Which is, considering how hard I work to save all year, prioritize not-fun and everyone else in almost all other cases, etc., pretty silly.
I was particularly exhausted going into that weekend having worked something like 15 days straight right before so there was not a moment to prepare for the trip mentally. Obviously I had paid for some things in advance (airfare, 1 night of the hotel, our badges) and already had money saved for it so we didn’t come away in the red. The travel fund is whining, but only because it doesn’t like going to empty. (I hear ya, Bob.)
*****
This was also an unusual year. I’ve never started an SDCC so worn out in my life. I’ve been running at about 10% energy levels, now, and still push myself to do almost everything at 80 or 90% pace. I couldn’t do that in San Diego this year. I couldn’t be up and about at 6 or 7 am every single day, Wednesday through Sunday, and be on the go through sundown.
We spent a lot more time meandering at a much slower pace. We didn’t force ourselves to go to every single interesting panel, we didn’t get out of the hotel by 7 am like I would normally have insisted, I didn’t hit every single booth in every single aisle and browse every single discounted comic booth as normal. (I’m a little sad about that.)
But we met up with very lovely internet people, we met random other (famous or familiar) people, we collected very cool stuff, found a pile of excellent presents, every single one of us had at least one Very Cool Moment.
I must have had at least three.
Robert Starkings and Gabo of Elephantmen were extra excellent, sketching and signing all of my books at their booth and then giving me a hug when I was bouncing with excitement over the deliciousness of the art, and then taking a photo with me and their entire crew.
w00tstock was incredible. I was quite sad I didn’t get to see all of it but duty called to keep PiC from freezing on his quest to save me from heartbreak so I had to dash out. By proxy, though, the Sunshine Cthulhu that I doted on that weekend went to Wil Wheaton as thanks over the stolen e-book debacle & I was pretty tickled to hear that. [Not really my moment, it was just a Very Cool Thing.] I will definitely want to go again and enjoy it in all the glory.
I met up with an industry veteran I think I’m allowed to call a friend, and had a very good long chat with him. I was thrilled to pieces that he was honored that weekend with an industry award.
Pia Guerra, one of my favorite artists, was hanging out on Sunday and drew a fantastic sketch of (as requested) her favorite characters from Y: The Last Man. I’ve loved her work for years. Incidentally, also my favorite character.
Also, David Peterson, creator of MouseGuard drew an adorable sketch for my wee book and was a fabulously nice dude. He then won an Eisner that evening so it was really cool to be able to come back around and give him our congratulations.
Twitter made it possible to have a very random and sudden meet-up with people I’d wanted to see but had missed all weekend previously. That was Brilliant.
I loved how Ruth had never been to SDCC but so many more people knew/talked to her than me. It was fantastic fun having her as a Con buddy. Loved. It. I’m really going to miss having her. I want her back for next SDCC! I need the budget to make this happen, folks!
*****
Having home base to come back to was, as always, key to the decompression stage each night. That was different, too, and I think we could have used earlier nights but it was definitely the better choice for most of us rather than going out to all the night parties that were going on. I don’t think I could have survived Con Night Life this year. Watching it on Twitter was good enough for me!
Such party animals! 😉
Maybe in a few years … when I’m not … so old?
P.S. I almost caught a DebtHater this year! Next time ….
Adding:
July 27, 2011
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| The creepiest biggest Smurf ever |
Boyoboyoboy.
For weeks leading up to this mid-July jaunt I kept picking up pretties, and putting down pretties. I knew I wanted things, but I couldn’t sustain the wanting enough to buy them. It was just not there. As it turns out, this was A Very Good Thing.
My annual pilgrimage to Comic Con has never been such a banking bruiser. As usual, by planning ahead, we saved on our airfare a fair amount, using award tickets one way and sale tickets the other way. This was a hotel year as well, shared with two friends, with parking at both ends (hotel and convention site) coming out to $500 for five days and four nights for the two of us. Free cookies coming and going, though! *_*
Tickets for next year were bumped up a huge amount. Four day passes with Preview Night for adults are now going for $175. That’s up from $105.
This year, the officials held back a huge amount of tickets to be sold online due to having sold out entirely onsite last year. That makes sense – I think it was really unexpected and unfair for people who were not attending this year to have lost the chance to buy a full weekend pass for next year just because they weren’t on-site. But then they also set specific times and restrictions on how and when and who could purchase tickets for next year. In combination with the memory of an online ticketing system that fell on its face not once, not twice, but multiple times last year, that sudden perception of extreme scarcity led to a run on the tickets and people freaked out.
Lines formed at midnight for tickets that were being sold at 8 am, hell, lines formed the full day before the rest of the weekend because people didn’t trust the online sales system even though the whole point was to reserve tickets for online sales. It was ridiculous.
Even though I love this annual event, considering the insane hoops we were put through just to buy the tickets, I seriously considered taking our chances online because I hated the idea of letting the spectre of next year ruin this year. My crazy fiance was selectively deaf to my input on the matter even though this isn’t even his event.
Resentful of the crappy choices of camping out or risking not even getting tickets if the online system crawled up a drainpipe and died again, I even tried to tell myself (and PiC) that we could just choose not go next year. But the words wouldn’t creep past my throat and he wasn’t having any of it. Apparently, he could feel my future/potential heartbreak as well. Bless his heart, he even camped out overnight to make certain we would be able to have those badges in hand for next year before leaving this year.
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| Camping. Sweet butter, there was camping. |
We didn’t both stay out the entire night, I just stayed late and he stayed the rest of the night but we were toast the rest of the next day.
I did ever so much more shopping than I’ve done in years past, loading up on 60% off comics pushing myself right over the airline weight limit, and that after I’d emptied clothes out of the suitcase. All told, comics and various other goodies ran to the tune of $253.55. Nearly 20 gifts of varying sizes were in that batch, but for the first time, a few presents for us as well.
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| Wee Street Fighters! |
Considering I went in saying I wasn’t going to spend “much” but didn’t think about my budget beforehand – totally lost in my haze leftover from working days upon days upon days – and didn’t keep an eye on the running tally only recording my purchases as I went, it would seem we escaped relatively ok. Except. I count pre-registration for the following year in the year it was purchased ($350).
We spent, then, $603.55 at SDCC this year. Also, we purchased tickets for w00tstock, another $100, and contributed another $150 to the food budget for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Holycats, guys. The spending was spread across many months, starting from last year through this year,
Total: Way So Much. ($1500)
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| Oh, and I met Bruce Campbell! |
Plan for Defraying Next Year’s Costs
I’m reeling from sticker shock. We’ve never had to spend that much on a Con before, it’s always been under $600 including the next year’s tickets.
The airfare and hotel costs are the easiest targets. Between now and next year I can either concentrate purchases to earn hotel points or (probably the better plan) concentrate on earning points where I can redeem for hotel gift certificates which substitute for cash. Doubtful that reward bookings will be available during that seriously high volume time so the latter would be better.
The other option is to find a way to make $3500 over and above my usual income. $1500 for Con, $500 for taxes, $500 for savings and $1000 just to make myself feel better about this year. 😉
February 8, 2011
In nearly ten years of attending Comic Con, I’ve always been a budget traveler.
I was lucky that it was a relatively local event, because it was easier to keep costs down. I started out volunteering in order to get free admission to the first few conventions, and rarely ever bought anything unless it was a gift. Even then I was on a strict budget. The experience was souvenir enough for me.
The biggest expenses were lodgings, parking and food with lodgings ranging from $100 per night to an insane $500 per night at some of the premium hotels. If my friend’s family hadn’t generously hosted me every year in San Diego, six or seven years running, I could never have justified those early years as a broke college student. To avoid paying ten dollars parking every day, sometimes I would park way out on a dusty road, near the railroad crossing and just off the highway to trek almost a mile in.
At first it was just me geeking out alone, save for friend’s younger sibling who was entrusted to my care a couple days of the convention. A few years later, my friend C eventually started attending too, then other siblings, the odd cousin and friend joined the stream toward the Convention Center and suddenly we were a proper group with schedules and everything.
Every year I’d drive down and spend a couple hours in the early afternoon with C’s parents, then I’d be off to pick up my badge from the convention center for Preview Night, sometimes with C’s sib, sometimes without. C would show up with his SO whenever he pleased, and we’d convene on the Con floor. That night, we’d have a post-Preview Night rehash over dinner at the house.
Every morning we’d pack our lunches from the supplies that C’s parents had more than generously laid in for us, and every night we’d meet back for dinner and banter.
Even when I started bringing PiC and a friend or two of my own, and there wasn’t enough room for everyone even to camp out so we branched out into another set of lodgings, also generously loaned to us for a stay, we always came back after a long day at Con. Not for us the after parties, the Gaslamp gatherings, home was where we headed. It’s what you do. It’s what we did.
It’s not quite the same now, C’s dad is gone and we miss him terribly. He was never a demonstrative man but he had a hug, hello or goodbye, for me in the later years; a sign, I think, that we’d become more than just kids who showed up to invade his house once a season.
This year’s going to be even more different.
We have to fly, now, of course. That’s kind of a pain – I can’t linger for the last gasps of Con anymore as I have to join the sad departing hordes to the airport.
A friend of the heart from the ‘nets will be coming out to join our group and I really hope she feels just as comfortable with the group as the other additions have become. And we don’t have our lovely loan of a condo this year so I’m scrambling a bit to find ourselves a new set of lodgings.
This last, while I never take the loan of the lodgings for granted, caught me by surprise and PiC and I have to figure out how to lodge our newly formed group. Wish me luck, I’ve run out of any decent number of hotel points, and paying for hotels in San Diego around one of the biggest comic conventions ever is rather intimidatingly expensive.
August 4, 2008
The budget: $300, plus $150 in gas cards
Spent: $142 cash, $41 gas
Bought: 7 trade paperbacks (gifts), 1 tshirt (gift), 1 super cool toy for BF (gift)
Free: Sketch from Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content (gift), sketch from Lars Brown of me with a Viking hat, sketch from the Penny Arcade guys of Tycho and Gabe doing a fastball special. Bonus points to whoever recognizes that move! 🙂
Still to spend: flowers for the friend who let me stay in his condo (40, to split with BF), shipping fee to send his keys back (5, USPS Priority Mail), ticket for next year
Favorite quote (financially related, of course): Grant Morrison, answering a question from a fan
“You just have to try to learn to let go of your desires. You have to detach yourself from materials, sort of be separate from it, so that you can enjoy life. It’s really difficult, I know, because we’re surrounded by really cool things …. I want to go see Dark Knight again! But you have to remember that things just make you miserable. You see, there’s always going to be some cool thing you want, and then when you get that, you’re going to want another cool thing. In the end, you’re just going to be miserable because you can’t have all the cool things in the world. ”
I love that. I felt like I practiced that philosophy of enjoying being there at Con, and being selective about the things I picked up. Actually, I only bought gifts for other people this year, I didn’t buy a thing for myself, and I came out of there utterly content. Grant Morrison is crazy awesome. And his super Scottish brogue made him that much more lovable. Well, that and his very mellow demeanor with fans. And the fact that he’s always spiffed out in a suit and crazy tie. Speaking of Dark Knight: AWESOME!
Favorite Con Man: David Mack!
I love that he totally humors me. I took a hiatus from comics for a while, jaded by all the Marvel crossovers in the late 90s and his books (Kabuki) were what brought me back to the creativity and sheer artistry that I loved. Thus, I completely fangirl out when I see him, and visit him at every Con I attend. For his part, he’s all smiles, and totally gracious and friendly to every Con attendee, and considering how rough Con can be for these creators, it’s amazing. I know that it’s all fun and games for us, but Con is business for those in the industry and you can tell that some of them aren’t into socializing with their public AT ALL. Not this guy, he’s never having a bad day. Six years I’ve been seeing him at Cons now, and never anything but a smile on him. Luckily, real BF is ok with my Con BF. 😉
