Hot Nerd Girl

Category: Celebrity

  • Long Beach Comic Con wrap-up 2012

    I love Long Beach Comic Con because it’s still small enough that comic books are the main focus. San Diego Comic Con is great, with it’s giant movie and TV show panels but it’s nice to be able to get back to the roots of what comic cons started as…a place to nerd out over your favorite artists and find out what’s next in the genre of, uh, comic books. Plus I got press passes again this year which totally rocks my socks.

    My brother was just as in to X-Men as I was when we were kids. He even stole my Series II trading cards (I still haven’t gotten them back…ahem) but he’s never been to a Comic Book Convention. Neither has my nephew, Zeke (yes, that’s a boy, don’t let his voluptuous locks fool you). So I thought LBCC would be a nice starter convention for them.

    It was a huge learning experience for me as well. For example, I now know that if I want to sit in on some panels, bringing a 4-year-old is probably not the best idea.

    Case in point.

    But that’s okay. I loved taking him around and he was totally blown away by all the “supers” (or “shoopers” in 4-year-old speech). He even convinced his dad to whip out his credit card and buy him a Green Lantern action figure. Of course, then we ran into Superman AND Green Lantern so Zeke needed a picture with them.

    I’m pretty sure he had a nerdgasm over the sheer volume of action figures surrounding him in every direction.

    We tested Zeke’s superhero knowledge often. It’s become apparent that our entire family is on a mission to make sure this child is a geeky as humanly possible.

    If you follow the facebook page, you probably saw my announcement that I managed to convince my brother and sister-in-law to give Doctor Who a try. I’m proud to say that they are officially obsessed.

    There was an artist there named Matt Stevens who creates and makes metal fan art. It’s basically a crapload of little dots engraved in metal. The pictures don’t do them justice, they are really quite stunning.

    If I was a wealthy woman I would have bought the whole lot because they all went together in big montages and he had them for most of my favorite TV shows. Since I am not a wealthy woman, I settled on a small one of the 10th Doctor in all of his sheepishly adorkable glory and a small one of Wash in the midst of a sudden but inevitable betrayal.

    We just happened to walk by Jesse Blaze Snider‘s booth while Zeke was being fussy and he was sweet enough to give The Zekester a free Toy Story comic that he’d written. We ended up chatting with him for a few minutes. He’s got a couple of projects coming up, including one about heavy metal bands featuring some of our favorite Asgardians that I’ll be keeping an eye out for.

    Yes, we started pinning Zeke’s bangs back with a bobby pin. His mother refuses to cut his hair.

    We saw a couple of celebs including Jason Faunt aka Wes Collins aka Red Time Force Power Ranger.

    And a personal favorite of mine, Lance Henriksen. Lance has many, many, many amazing credits to his name but he is best know to the masses as Bishop from the Alien franchise. Lance was extremely nice. He kept calling Zeke “she” and was mortified when I gently informed him that I was holding my nephew, not my niece. Zeke seemed to get a kick out of that 

    They had a whole Star Wars section.

    Including a game where you could shoot various Troopers of the Clone and Storm variety using a vast array of Nerf weaponry.

    They had a Jawa hanging out with them but he got the hell out of Tosche just before the shooting started.

    Around the corner was a laser tag obstacle course. I can only imagine how ridiculous this looked to my brother (he’s a Marine). I should ask him.

    Then this happened.

    Oh, Leatherface…

    On to costumes!

    I don’t know if it’s because I went on Sunday or if there were just fewer cosplayers this year, but the costumed character selection was a bit limited. But here’s the best of the best of what I saw.

    Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.

    The Joker from The Dark Knight.

    Rick and Daryl from The Walking Dead.

    A pair of sexy lady Punisher‘s. I really wanted a picture of Zeke standing between them but he didn’t want to get his picture taken unless me or my brother was holding him. Of course, once I picked him up he was totally stoked to be next to such hotties.

    I felt a happy disturbance in the Schwartz when I saw this guy with his singing and dancing Chestburster from Spaceballs.

    The 11th Doctor. He was facing away from me and I quietly said “Doctor?” and he immediately turned around like he responds to that name all the time. We also crossed paths with a pretty excellent 4th Doctor as we were walking in. Wish I’d gotten a picture of him but alas.

    Keeping with the sci-fi, we ran into this guy pulling a CMDR William Riker.

    Zeke was a little confused by this Jedi. Either that or he was super jealous of his epic lightsaber.

    This is not the child you’re looking for. Move along.

    Barbie Fett?

    But the winner of the “Best Comic Con Costume Ever Award” goes to this chick. Yes, that’s a chick.

    That’s it for costumes. Here’s a look at the fun stuff I accumulated. Iron Man fingerless gloves hand-crocheted by Bobbie Bomber and sold by Geeky Mamas.  A pink-skeleton-Sailer Jack-with bomb t-shirt that was on sale. My previously mentioned metal art. And a stuffed Thor (not included in the picture is the pretty awesome Thor print that came with the stuffed godlet).

    Every convention I go to I seek out my favorite nerdy t-shirt. This time it was won by this one. Hands down.

    And on that note, I hope y’all have a Happy Thor’s Day!

  • Celebrating The Selling

    Many of you know that I’ve been a big supporter of The Selling, an independent horror comedy written, directed, produced, and starring some of my fellow SF Staters. I wrote a review of it, interviewed Director Emily Lou, and promoted the heck out of their Kickstarter campaign. They’ve done the festival circuit but today is one more big milestone, the release of the DVD (which you can buy at Amazon right HERE).

    Right now they are releasing the film in select theatres across the country. Last night I had the privilege of finally seeing it on the big screen at The Egyptian in Hollywood, a theatre I lived across the street from for a year and a half but never went inside until last night.

    It’s perty inside

    The night started off with a bang. I got to my bff Danielle’s house and wasn’t there for more than 5 minutes before her adorable dog Scamper raided my purse and started eating my zombie apocalypse emergency food that I always carry with me. Bad Scamper!

    It’s ok, Auntie Tracy still loves you

    We had some time to kill before the reception at the theatre so we drove to Hollywood early and stopped at Juicy Burger on Hollywood Blvd. Funny story, there’s a bit of a running joke between me and some of my peeps about “Gangnam Style” so when the song came on at the restaurant I just had to dance to it even though I don’t really know how the dance goes. We were in the back of the restaurant so I didn’t think anyone could see me. Turns out, they have a mirror hanging from the ceiling so the ENTIRE staff of the restaurant was watching. The cashier girl was really happy cause it was her birthday and she said it made her day. So it was worth hearing the laughter from the kitchen 

    –

    Totally random things like that happen when Danielle and I get together. We can’t help it.

    Me and Danielly Belly

    We headed over to the theatre for the Reception and I was so excited to finally meet everyone who worked on the film! Even though a lot of us went to SFSU together, share a lot of mutual friends, and have been friends on facebook for well over a year now, none of us can remember if we’ve ever met before, at State or since. Not surprising since I was a super shy wallflower, especially my Freshman year when I would have crossed paths with most of them. Over the past year and a half I’ve grown to really adore Emily Lou and Gabriel Diani. They are the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.

    Director and Producer Emily Lou:

    Writer, Producer and Star Gabriel Diani:

    Danielle can’t stop talking about how talented Gabriel is.

    Love this picture

    Producer and Star Etta Devine (I still think she has one of the greatest names ever):

    Co-star Barry Bostwick (not gonna lie, I was pretty excited to meet Barry):

    Star Jonathan Klein (we had a great conversation after the show about old school Disneyland. Totally random topic but super funny and awesome):

    Co-star Simon Helberg (not gonna lie, I was pretty excited to meet Simon too):

    Co-star Cole Stratton (who I hadn’t seen in YEARS, not since he was doing a comedy troupe thing and I went to see him perform with Trevor Morgan aka the kid from The Sixth Sense and Jurassic Park 3:

    Co-star Janet Varney (another fellow SF Stater. I sat in on her Legend of Korra panel at San Diego Comic Con. It was right before the Firefly panel. She’s a super talented and funny lady):

    After the film (which was even better than I’d remembered it being) they did a Q&A session:

    We then headed next door to the Pig and Whistle to meet up with friend and comedian Chris Porter for some post-show refreshments:

    I’m a fan of the Jager Bomb, which Danielle found fascinating. She decided that it needed to be recorded for posterity.

    –

    The above picture with Chris and Danielle shows me after two Jager Bombs. This is Danielle after one glass of water:

    God, I love her. She cracks me up.

    Now, I’m going to say this one more time. You need to see The Selling. It’s HI-larious, scary but not too scary, and impeccably put together. To say that I’m ridiculously proud of my fellow SF Staters would be the understatement of the year. You can also do Amazon Instant Video or find it on iTunes and a few other websites.

    For more information, visit The Selling website.

  • “Ask a Roddenberry” – Interview with Rod Roddenberry

    Every time I see Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry I become a bigger fan of him. He’s genuinely friendly and very easy to talk to.

    This interview was conducted on Saturday at San Diego Comic Con, hence my Thor costume, crazy makeup and obvious lack of sleep. I got back from my Grandma’s funeral a day and a half before SDCC so I only had about 24 hours to prepare for this interview. Despite the notes on my lap, it felt more like a conversation than an interview which I think was welcome to both of us – it was to me! But such is the personality of Rod. I never once felt nervous, though having met him before was most likely the reason for that.

    In the interview we talk about scuba diving, The Roddenberry Foundation, an amazing new media project called White Room: 02B3, the X Prize and devices such as Medical Tricorders and Universal Translators becoming a reality, and, of course, Star Trek. He also reveals a new Star Trek blog called “Mission Log” hosted by John Champion (DVD Geeks) and Ken Ray (Mac OS). I asked many of your questions so thank you for submitting them!

    We ended up using the whole interview, nothing was edited out so the footage is all raw all the time.

    Hope you enjoy it!

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7js4WltWHR0]

    –

    For more information on anything and everything Roddenberry, check out Roddenberry.com.

    Some more pics from the interview…

    Thanks to my friends Darcy for filming and Eddy for taking the still shots. And a huge thanks to Rod, Trevor, Chance and everyone in the Roddenberry camp for being so welcoming to me yet again!

  • Star Trek night at Dodger Stadium

    I’m that rare combination of girl who is a huge nerd but is also a big sports fan. I’m pretty much in 7th heaven right now with the Olympics being on.

    My favorite non-Olympic sports to watch are football and baseball. I’ve never been to a professional football game (it’s on the bucket list) but I’ve been to tons of professional baseball games. It’s one of my very favorite things to do.

    I happen to have a family member who has amazing season tickets for the Dodgers. So I’ve gone to a few Dodger games in my day even though I’m not actually a Dodger fan. No, I have the sad misfortune of being a Padres fan (one of these days we’ll get there!) But that’s beside the point. If I don’t care about either team I root for the Home Team. It’s just good manners.

    So when cousin Chaney discovered that Friday, August 3rd was Star Trek night at Dodger Stadium, we got the invite to attend. Not gonna lie, I was pretty frakking stoked. They were playing game 1 in a series against the Cubs.

    I debated whether or not I should dress up in one of my three Starfleet uniforms. I have a number of Star Trek t-shirts and I was thisclose to wearing one of them but my Mama Jedi is constantly telling me to be big and brave and bold so I opted for the uniform.

    Thankfully no one in my group was completely mortified by this. In fact, they were even more gung ho than I was. I was worried I would embarrass them but they all thought it was pretty cool.

    Sold.

    It turned out that I was the only one in attendance who was big and brave and bold. I didn’t see one other person dressed up. Chaney saw one Star Trek t-shirt but that was it. In fact, most people who stopped to ask me why I was dressed that way had no idea it was even Star Trek night.

    Sigh.

    Oh well, I’m used to being the only weirdo in the room. Or in this case, the packed stadium.

    In honor of Star Trek night the Dodgers were giving away Spock jersey t-shirts. They were actually pretty awesome and I totally wanted one but it turns out they were only giving them away at one entrance and they ran out pretty quickly.  Sad robot 🙁

    The second we sat down I looked up and the eyes immediately zeroed in on a figure standing on the field. I yelped and said “holy shit, it’s William Shatner!” much to the surprise of my companions.

    I went down to try and catch his attention to see if he’d come over for a picture since I was the ONLY PERSON in the entire stadium in costume.

    I’m 99% sure he saw me. He was looking right at me and when I waved he looked away and avoided looking in my direction for the rest of the time he was on the field. That was kind of depressing but I have to admit that it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve even started to like William Shatner. To be clear, I have always loved James T. Kirk, just not always the person who portrayed him. It seemed like he’d warmed up to his Star Trek fans in the last couple of years though. Especially in his documentary The Captains (which is fantastic by the way). Apparently he has to be in the mood. Oh well. I was still ridiculously excited to see him. I was literally less than 20 feet away from him at one point. Star Trek actors are really the only people I get star struck by and that was a doozy.

    Shatner did all of the announcements and the roll call and even threw out the first pitch.

    I filmed it for you…

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lW9MS3NthI]

    –

    You’re welcome.

    I’m not going to go into the whole game or anything (Dodgers won) but one cool thing happened that I’ve never experienced before. Having a foul ball fly right at my face and having someone in my group nab it. It was the first foul ball of the game off the bat of David DeJesus from a pitch by Chad Billingsley. It bounced off the chairs in front of me, landed on the ground to the right of us, then rolled back in front of us before it was scooped up by Christian who had propelled himself over a row of seats to get to it. It happened very fast and frankly, I was relieved to have my face intact, but it was one of the coolest 2.5 seconds I’ve ever experienced at a ball park.

    Every once in a while I would catch a player turn around and look right at me (I wasn’t hard to find, I was bright red in a sea of white and blue). At one point that player was Matt Kemp. I was pretty excited to see Matt Treanor. I could really care less about him but he got Misty May to marry him and she’s awesome so he must be doing something right.

    The evening ended with Friday night fireworks set to the theme songs of the various Star Trek shows. They started off with a little film that was pretty much just a love letter to The Next Generation.

    Then the music started and the fireworks began.

    They did the theme songs in bizarro order. First Star Trek, then DS9, then Voyager, and ending with The Next Generation.  Enterprise got the shaft. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen fireworks and I really truly seriously LOVE fireworks and these were set to music from my very favorite franchise ever. It took a long time for me to wipe the goofy grin off my face.

    I filmed the Star Trek and TNG parts of the fireworks. You can see them here:

    Star Trek: The Original Series…

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-DnKN7DKOw]

    –

    Star Trek: The Next Generation (and the grand finale)…

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArjSpHIZdAg]

    –

    All in all, a pretty awesome way to spend the evening.

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 4 – Sunday Shenanigans

    Geek Outlaw and Hot Nerd Girl aka Nerd Best Friends Forever

    This has been my craziest Summer ever. I feel like I’m never home and I pretty much haven’t been since the beginning of June. Some of the reasons have been great (weddings, visiting new family members, hiking through Yosemite) and some of them have been sad (Grandma’s funeral) but all of them have been very time consuming. So I apologize for being so behind in answering emails and messages. Hopefully things start to calm down a bit.

    In the meantime, here is my last SDCC 2012-related post! (Don’t forget to check out my interview with Rod Roddenberry in the very near future. It was conducted at SDCC but is a beast all its own).

    Even though I had a couple more costumes to choose from I opted not to cosplay on Sunday. Not gonna lie, it was kind of a pain in the ass and one day of it was enough for me. I will definitely cosplay at future conventions though. It was a lot of fun despite the hassle.

    The first half of the day was consumed by the Fringe, Supernatural, and Doctor Who panels in Hall H. In case you missed it, I wrote about all of the Comic Con panels here.

    The second half I spent wandering around the Exhibition Hall. I didn’t see as many celebs on Sunday but Convention regular Thomas Jane was there.

    A bunch of people requested that I check out the Suicide Girls booth. Ask and you shall receive. They really liked my buttons.

    My buttons turned out to be pretty popular actually.

    Which is awesome cause I’m pretty much obsessed with my new button machine.

    I really wanted an awesome souvenir from the Con, and y’all know I’m a huge Trekkie, so when Geek Outlaw found Brian Rood’s booth I got really excited. I bought that lovely Kirk-Spock print you see in the pic.

    Some other randomly awesome stuff from the Floor:

    I’m actually pretty bummed that they remade Total Recall (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it mmmkay?) but I’ll wait until I see it to pass final judgement. I gotta admit though, this hover car was pretty badass.

    Geek Outlaw disappeared on me so I took this picture to make him feel guilty for ditching me 😉

    We ran into fan Andrew while roaming around.

    Michonne forgot to cut my arms and jaw off. Bad Michonne.

    My friend Eddy was sad that he was a zombie.

    We heard that there were Batmobiles across the way at the Hilton so we made our way over there.

    On to costumes!

    It took this badass chica about 1000 hours to make this armor out of aluminum.

    Where was this uber hot Cap when I needed her?? We were bummed that we didn’t run into each other when I was dressed as Thor the day before.

    Orcs! and Trolls!

    And Gollum! Oh my!

    I think he’s a little scared of me.

    This Bane was very friendly.

    As was this Darth Vader. All he wanted was a hug and everyone was just walking by. He looked very surprised and happy when I hugged him. What can I say? I’m a lover.

    Dark Helmet was not as friendly.

    Shit! I hate it when I get my Schartz twisted.

    I know who I’m gonna call. The World’s Tallest Ghostbuster standing next to me.

    It’s a Starfleet officer who has been assimilated by the Borg and has an Alien busting out of his chest WHO HAS ALSO BEEN ASSIMILATED BY THE BORG!! *le sigh* … I think I’m in love.

    Exterminate! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!!!

    While taking the picture with the Dalek I heard someone yell “Hey Hot Nerd Girl! Show us your tits!” I turned around and my friend Leia was standing there! She’s a fellow HNG and sexy beast. Sorry guys, I did not show her my tits.

    And so ended my 2012 Comic Con experience. It was a great first crack and I can’t wait to go next year. I’m going to try to make it to APE Con in San Francisco in October but with all this traveling I’ve been doing I may not make it. We’ll see. In the meantime, thanks to Mama Jedi, Troi, Darcy, Joy, Christian, Eddy, and especially Geek Outlaw for hanging out with me at SDCC. Thanks again to Daniel and Morgan for the great panel seats. Thanks to everyone I met and chatted with. And thanks to you for patiently waiting for this SDCC coverage while I was off gallivanting around the country.

    I leave you with this totally awesome picture I took of Geek Outlaw.

    You’re welcome.

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 2 – Friday Shenanigans

    I’ve been struggling to figure out how best to showcase my Comic Con shenanigans because I have over a thousand pictures taken over the course of 3 days. I did a post dedicated to the Panels and thought I might do posts dedicated to Costumes, Celebs, Exhibition Floor, etc. but no matter how I worked it, it just wasn’t coming out right. So I decided to showcase each day individually starting with Friday.

    Holy craparoni there was a ton of people. I knew there would be, and yet, nothing can prepare you for the experience the first time you go. I used to celebrate Halloween in the Castro, I know what it’s like to be surrounded by a shit ton of humans dressed in crazy costumes, but I’m also used to smaller conventions where it takes less than 45 minutes to walk from one end of the Exhibition Floor to the other.

    Craziness both outside… …and inside.

    In the past I’ve discussed my extreme shyness and social awkwardness. They go hand in hand and it’s something that I’m constantly fighting with, especially as the blog grows. This trait o’ mine can be particularly frustrating to my family and friends when they’re with me at conventions and events and are promoting me. I have a tendency to panic and retreat whenever I hear my name mentioned so by the time they turn to introduce me to someone I’m nowhere to be found. For Comic Con it was decided that they were going to liquor me up.

    I’m dead serious.

    And they came prepared. My sister-in-law, Troi, brought disposable flasks. My NBFF (Nerd Best Friend Forever), Geek Outlaw, made a delicious alcoholic concoction in his CamelBak each morning. I was ordered to sip from one of these two vessels throughout the day so that I would be less likely to panic and run. To be clear, I was never once intoxicated or even slightly buzzed, but I will admit that it took the edge off a little. A few people were even surprised when they were told how well I was doing at being social.

    Geez, I totally sound pathetic haha. The point is, it helped and I probably had my most socially successfully convention ever.

    Sippin’ on gin and juice

    I needed that little bit of liquid courage because I made buttons to hand out to the people I met. Lots and lots of gloriously nerdy buttons. Despite the liquor I was pretty shy about handing these out but there were a few times when they caught on like wildfire and I actually had a line of people waiting to dunk their hands in the giant bag of buttons. I made these in the 1.5 days between getting home from my Grandma’s funeral in Cincinnati and the first day of Comic Con so hopefully the next batch of buttons will be better.

    I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends throughout the day including one of my best buds Brett (he zombifies all my pictures for me), Aaron who I hadn’t seen in at least a couple of years, and Eddy who I hadn’t seen in 10 years.

    Brett! Aaron! Eddy! (and a seriously awesome photobomb)

    While on the Floor I headed over to the DC booth to visit Tre’ Ridings, a fabulous photographer who I met at WonderCon and have kept in touch with. If you haven’t yet, check out DC’s We Can Be Heroes campaign. While there Eddy and I got our pictures taken.

    Eddy got a bit saucy This made me LOL I stuck with good ol’ fashioned badassery Take THAT Lex Luther!

    I’m an insanely devoted Trekkie and have been collecting signatures in my TNG The Continuing Mission book for about 15 years now starting with John de Lancie. So I was super excited to see Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton at Comic Con! But super sad that I didn’t have my book on me. I got their signatures and pictures with them anyways.

    The next day I brought my book but Brent was gone. So I’ve added LeVar’s signature to the book. Hopefully Brent’s won’t be far behind!

    From top to bottom: Rod Roddenberry, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, LeVar Burton

    My sister-in-law and I ran into Colin Ferguson from Eureka on our way to the Roddenberry After Party. He was super nice.

    Lou Ferrigno was huge! And also very nice.

    Todd Stashwick is officially my new favorite celebrity. I didn’t recognize him at first with his hat and glasses. He was there promoting the printed trade paperback of his online comic book The Devil Inside and we started chatting it up about all kinds of random stuff like Chicago and the Secret Service. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes into the conversation that it even came out that he was an actor (trust me, you know who he is). We ended up talking for quite a while and I left with a copy of his book and a promise that I’d return the next day to show him my Thor costume and get Dennis Calero’s signature on my book.

    Some other randomly awesome stuff from the Floor:

    KITT…

    And Michael from Knight Rider.

    Awesome Indiana Jones booth complete with live snakes.

    Optimus Prime is the shit.

    Trolls!

    Zombie mobile from The Walking Dead.

    I don’t know why but the Batpod looked kind of small to me in real life but looking at it in comparison with the people in the picture it looks like a decent size. Weird.

    Troi is obsessed with zombies.

    Who’s scruffy-looking??

    The Captain’s chair was blocked off but they let this guy take a picture in it. Love the Roddenberry folks!

    Troi got the greatest LEGO set ever for my brother and my nephew. It has working electronics. Frak, I’m jealous.

    Time for costumes!

    We were behind some Avatar: The Last Airbender fans in a panel line.

    And also ran into some Legend of Korra peeps.

    My best guess is GI Joe. Correct me if I’m wrong!

    Saw a ton of Poison Ivy’s and Harley Quinn’s per usual.

    This guy was a big hit with Troi.

    Alicia Hunt?

    A towering inferno of physical perfection.

    Awesome AT-AT.

    Remember this girl?

    Her name is Jennifer Landa and she’s super sweet and she put together another spectacular Star Wars costume, this time of the Millennium Falcon.

    Everyone needs a little bit of Tusken Raider in their life to keep them on their toes.

    This Prometheus promotion calmly and silently walked through the Exhibition Hall while his lovely ladies passed crap out.

    Best. Penguin. Ever.

    What’s up Doc?

    And a couple after my own heart.

    It’s Picard and a female Geordi! How awesome is she?!?

    At the end of the day we headed over to Fluxx for the Roddenberry Trek Nation Party. (Friendly reminder that my interview with Rod Roddenberry will be coming to you soon!) On the way there we ran into the zombie walk. Depending on how long you’ve been reading you may or may not know that zombies are my biggest fear. Needless to say, I snapped this picture and then walked very briskly to the next street over.

    Me and Mom waiting to be let in to Fluxx. Apparently I was supposed to go through the Media/VIP line. Oops. I’m still getting used to being considered Media :/

    At the club we met up with friends Joy and Darcy (yes, he’s really that tall).

    And watched a circus performer lady.

    There was a super creepy Tron dude who just stood there and never took his motorcycle helmet off.

    Hanging out with Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment. He’s super awesome.

    This was some kind of Jägermeister concoction that Geek Outlaw ordered for me.

    Whatever. It was delicious.

    Goofing off with Troi, Mama Jedi and Geek Outlaw

    We left the party at 10:00pm (around the time the geeks left and the usual clubbers started showing up) to try and get some sleep before Day 2 of the Comic Con craziness.

     Stay tuned for “Part 3 – Saturday Shenanigans” in the next couple of days!

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 1 – The Panels

    Hot Nerd Girl and Geek Outlaw at it again

    I promised detailed blogs about Comic Con and by golly, I aim to keep that promise. There’s just one problem. There’s waaaay too much for just one post. I tried. I’ve gone through approx. 1000 pictures (no joke) and narrowed them down to the best of the best and even then I was left with so many that I had to break it up.  So I’m splitting SDCC into 3 (or 4) blogs.  The first of which is the panels.

    FRIDAY (Community, Legend of Korra, Firefly):

    I’ve been to many conventions but this was my first time at the mothership aka Comic Con and boy, did I learn a lot about what to do/not to do (but that’s a whole ‘nuther post). I thought that because I live in San Diego County I could sleep at home and drive to SDCC each day.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    I’m ridiculous.

    Parking is a bitch so what you end up having to do is drive to a trolley station and take the trolley the rest of the way. They helpfully provide CC-specific trolleys to make it easy for you. One problem, the first one gets you to the Convention Center just after 7:00am. Waaaay too late if you want to get in line for one of the big panels *cough cough Firefly cough cough*

    Daniel to the rescue!

    Lucky for me and Geek Outlaw, our mutual fan (and now fave friend) Daniel, had planned to camp out and saved a spot for us in the Ballroom 20 line. I felt guilty about cutting in line for exactly 3 minutes at which point I saw everyone else doing the exact same thing and got over it.

    I’m not gonna lie, I was there for Firefly and Firefly alone. But you have to sit on all of the panels before Firefly in order to have a seat for Firefly (they seriously need to figure out a better system) so I ended up sitting through the panels fro Community and Legend of Korra as well.

    I wasn’t the only one.

    The first panel of the day was Community. I find Community highly entertaining so I was more than happy to sit in on their panel. They did not disappoint. The cast and crew were hilarious and the film clips they put together for Comic Con were chock full of funny shenanigans. Chevy Chase and Donald Glover were noticeably absent. Which is too bad because LeVar Burton was there and they could have had an epic Troy/LeVar moment.

    Cast and Crew of Community

    The second panel of the day was Legend of Korra (I’d like to know who they had to bang to get the lucky spot between Community and Firefly). This panel was like Chinese water torture for my sister-in-law. She looked like she was either going to explode or throw up. Maybe both. Simultaneously. I had an advantage because I’ve seen a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender. So I actually enjoyed the panel. It was notable in that I recognized two of the voice actors. Bud (David Faustino) from Married with Children and Janet Varney from The Selling (which I reviewed a while back because it’s directed/produced/starring our mutual friends from SFSU). It was also fun because they recorded the audience doing crowd voice work for a future episode. I’ll admit, it got me intrigued about checking out an episode or two of the cartoon. For those who are Korra fans, they did a preview of an upcoming episode by reading the script live while showing concept sketches of the episode. They also showed off future costume and character designs.

    The cast and crew of The Legend of Korra Hey! It’s the chick from Falling Skies!

    Then came the panel we were there for, the 10 year Firefly reunion. It was epic. Truly epic. I felt like I was a part of history. The sheer volume of love being poured forth was incredibly intense. The actors and Joss all cried at some point. Most of the audience cried at some point. My mom cried through 90% of it. It was magical. I took video of parts of it but then I found this full length video and thought you would appreciate it more.

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V85olh2aZ34]

    –

    Nathan Fillion was so overwhelmed that he totally missed a question that was directed at him and his costars had to answer for him.  They all said that Firefly was the best job they’d ever had. At one point they all blamed Summer Glau for something (which you’ll find hilarious if you’ve watched the extras on the DVD) and the look on her face was priceless. Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, and Ron Glass were missing and their absence was felt deeply by everyone in the room. The most touching moment in an hour chock full of touching moments was when the last question was asked of Joss Whedon –  “what do the fans mean to you?”

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXiS0gV8cic]

    –

    It was the most beautiful “thank you” I’ve ever witnessed and I feel truly honored to have been there for it.

    Tid bit excited!

    SATURDAY (Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski, Roddenberry Presents):

    Saturday was the day I cosplayed as Thor. Which was awesome but awful at the same time. It was my first time cosplaying at a convention and I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get ready. As a result I got to Comic Con about…ohhhhh….5 hours later than I’d intended and missed a bunch of the morning panels I’d wanted to check out. I’m a little jealous that Geek Outlaw got to sit it on the Powerful Women, Simpsons, Futurama, Once Upon a Time, and Peter Cullen panels but meh, what are you gonna do?

    (Be sure to check out Geek Outlaw’s blog if you want to get the dish on those panels I just mentioned!)

    No matter, I had something uber awesome to look forward to. I was scheduled to interview Rod Roddenberry after his 3:00pm panel.

    As a result I caught the Joe Straczynski panel right beforehand. The best part of that panel? One guy complained that a Joe comic had kept him up on a school night so Joe reached into his wallet and gave the guy a $20 refund.  It was quite hilarious.

    The Roddenberry panel was a whole ‘nuther level of awesomesauce but I’m saving all of the Roddenberry stuff for its own post later this week. So stay tuned for that!

    SUNDAY (Fringe, Supernatural, Doctor Who):

    I was supposed to cosplay on Sunday as well but my experience on Saturday convinced me that it was a terrible idea so I reverted back to an HNG t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Comfort and timeliness will always, always win out for me. I am nothing if not practical.

    Morgan to the rescue!

    The one panel that I was determined to see was Doctor Who. I lurv me some Doctor. Again, thanks to the trolley schedule, we were pretty much screwed but miraculously, another HNG/GO fan came to our rescue. Morgan camped out and let us join him in line for Hall H. Seriously. Best. Fans. Ever. I’ve promised myself that I will plan this better and do my own camping out next year.

    Immediately upon walking into Hall H we were handed Fringe fedoras a la The Observers  (fun fact, while I was in New York I saw Evita on Broadway starring Michael Cerveris as Peron and he was AH-mazing)

    Fringe was the first panel of the day and after mentioning their brushes with cancellation, there was a very lovely moment when at least half the audience held up pictures of white tulips. I’ll admit that I got a little verklempt.

    Despite the best efforts of the audience (and some teasing from Joshua Jackson), the Fringe cast and crew revealed no secrets about the upcoming final season.

    It was kind of a kick to see the actors smile and laugh. There was one especially funny moment when Anna Torv said she “was coming…” and then paused in her sentence. The audience started laughing.

    Then Joshua Jackson got it and started laughing.

    Then the rest of the cast got it and started laughing.

    Then Anna got it and was completely mortified.

    It then became a running joke throughout the rest of the panel. I feel for you Anna, that is totally something that would happen to me. The mood quickly shifted when the cast were asked what their favorite scene was that they were not in. Cue the waterworks! Anna Torv,  Jasika Nicole, and Lance Reddick all teared up when describing memorable and beautiful scenes from the show.

    And then shifted back again just as quickly when the best audience questioners ever took the floor. I can’t even remember what their question was, I was too busy laughing at their deadpan Observer impression. Seriously, they never broke character once and the girl in the back right had the most amazingly creepy buggy-eyed thing going on..

    It was an all around awesome panel and made me want to run home and catch up on my Fringe episodes on Netflix.

    Next up was Supernatural, a show I’ve never had time to get into. Seriously, I wish that I didn’t have to sleep, I would be more than happy to fill 100% of my time watching every awesomely nerdy show there is. I have some friends that are obsessed with this show and have been trying to get me to watch it for years. They were very jealous that I got to see this panel. The running joke here was that “anything is possible” was used to answer at least half of the questions they were asked.

    I may not know much about the show but I do know about Mark Sheppard and I was SUPER excited to see him. I’m pretty sure that he’s contractually obligated to only appear in TV shows/movies that are nerd-worthy.

    I never really thought that Jared Padalecki was that cute but I must admit, he’s pretty damn good-looking in real life. He and Jensen Ackles win major brownie points for their gag reel antics.

    Then came the panel that I was really there for, Doctor Who. Or should I say “Doctor WHOOO???” Seeing these people in real life is kind of a surreal experience. I usually only get star struck by Star Trek actors but I was totally star struck by these guys. I literally sat on the edge on my seat the entire time. And that’s only partly because the girl in front of me was so tall she most likely plays in the WNBA.

    First of all, let me just say how incredibly gorgeous Karen Gillan is. Seriously. I didn’t think she could get any prettier than she is on TV but she can! I’ve seen it with my own two eyes! Just stunning.

    The moderator of the panel was one of my nerd crushes, Chris Hardwick (not Wil Wheaton as some mistakenly believed) and he was nerding out just as much as the rest of us. He even brought his sonic screwdriver.  There was a bit of good-natured ribbing between him and Matt Smith. Apparently they ran into each other the night before at a party and this happened:

    Oops! Chris blamed it on his pointy face.

    The best audience question came from a little girl dressed up as a Dalek. She wanted to know what button, screen or object on the TARDIS was their favorite. The cast took this question very seriously and even admitted to stealing a few of their favorites (a pair of binoculars for Karen). Matt’s favorite is the main lever he yanks all the time. The little girl walked away but Matt Smith called her back and asked her if she had a favorite button, screen or object on the TARDIS. She looked at him very pointedly, said “NO” and walked away again. The whole room was laughing so hard I think we all peed ourselves a little.

    They were also asked what they find annoying about each other. Matt said that Karen picks her lip, Karen said that Matt shakes his head and they both agreed that Arthur Darvill goes into “dad mode.”

    Having seen the Firefly and Doctor Who panels, I can now die a happy nerd.

    Stay tuned for more posts about Comic Con 2012 including the Roddenberry interview I mentioned and all of the awesome costumes!

  • San Diego Comic Con 2012 (Sunday Highlights)

    Awwww, I’m sad. Comic Con is over 🙁

    I’m starving, sleep-deprived, sore all over and yet I would go back and do it all again tomorrow.

    I’ll put together some really comprehensive SDCC posts in the next couple of days here with many more photos, video clips and details, but until then, here are some highlights from the last day of Comic Con.

    Stay tuned for more!

  • San Diego Comic Con 2012 (Saturday Highlights)

    It’s 2:00am again and I’m still sleep deprived.

    Yesterday was a BFD day for me. It was my first time cosplaying at a convention. I chose to dress up as my favorite comic book superhero/Norse God, Thor (I’m such a good little Norwegian). I put this costume together myself and even did some light sewing and scissor work to make it all happen. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t breath (this also marked my first time ever wearing a corset), I had fun dressing up. My sister-in-law is a makeup artist so she did the dramatic Thor makeup on me. I got a lot of compliments on my costume so I must have done something right 🙂

    Just like yesterday this is just some preview pictures. I’ll do a full wrap up post after this weekend. I also have a fantastic interview with Rod Roddenberry to be uploaded/posted (thanks to those who submitted questions for him!) I apologize for not posting more pictures during the actual convention, the cell reception/internet is horrible and even trying to log on drains massive amounts of battery power.  I did try!

    Today is the last day…booo 🙁

    But at least I’ll be able to sleep again 😉

  • San Diego Comic Con 2012 (Friday Highlights)

    It’s 2:00am on Friday night…I mean, Saturday morning…and I’m running on about 2 hours of sleep but before I hit the hay I wanted to put together a few of the highlights from today’s…I mean, yesterday’s….Comic Con.  I’ll put together a more comprehensive post after the weekend is over.

    I just realized it’s 13 pics for Friday the 13th. Boo yah!

    Holy crap I’m exhausted!

    I can’t wait to spend another fabulous day at Comic Con!  I’ll post some more highlights tomorrow night.

    Ok, I gotta go to bed now…