People seem to think my reports are over. They are not! There's still Sunday, people! So let's go...

Sunday

Sunday was a relative slow day. I had only 1 thing on my schedule, maybe 2...

Jenni didn't go on Sunday... she was too sick =/, so Stuart drove us to the Con.

Started the day going to Ballroom 20 line again, cause I wanted to see the first panel of the day, Doctor Who!

Line was WAY smaller than the previous day, so that was good. I was alone in line at first, but then when the line started to move I saw that guildie Matthew was there too. He kindly waited for me to catch up (he had arrived before me) and then we waited/walked in line together. Matt was Nas's roommate at the hotel, but we hadn't seen much of him during the Con, so it was nice to at least see him on Sunday.

When we walked in, we tried to find a good seat, but it got packed fast, and we ended up getting not-so-good seats. It was the worse (except for 24, but I don't care about 24) seats I got for a panel... and I was kinda sad about it... but oh well.

The panel was great. David Tennant is a rock star. He's also very funny and had great answers for everything. And we got to see a sneak peek of Tennant's last episode, which was cool!

I don't have much to talk about it though... except that even in DW panel there was a Browncoat moment (first audience question), and that was nice. =)

After the panel, we left and I wanted to go to the Browncoat booth again to check something, so Matt went there with me. Then I went to Guild booth and Matt went somewhere else.

There was a signing going on (the last Guild signing), so I hanged out there and took some pics (and I got one that is probably my favorite Felicia pic I took). A bunch of Guildies were there helping with the line... which was nice. I realized that that would probably be the last time I'd see the whole Guild cast, so I wanted to stay around until the end of the signing to take a pic with all of them... Also got one of Guild cast, Kim and Jamie, and it's another one of my favorite pics from the Con. After I got the pic, I said a collective bye to all of them, said thanks for everything and all...

The signing continued for a while after that, and I was still around. I wanted to go to the Browncoats meeting going on at that same time (I had missed the Dr. Horrible screening, would miss the OMWF screening, and now was missing the Browncoats meeting... which made me a bit sad...), but I was at the Con because of The Guild. So I felt like I should be there... and say bye to all of them. It was something I wanted to do, even though that meant missing something I really wanted to do too. During my time around the Guild booth someone (I think it was Jim/Scarbuck) showed me a tweet saying Nathan Fillion showed up at the Browncoat meeting, which made me ALMOST run there. But I didn't. It's ok, I made my peace with it.

So, after the signing was over, a bunch of us went to have lunch. And then Jim (yeah, I think it was him who showed me the tweets) showed me another Tweet... "Nathan Fillion is signing at the Browncoat booth". And that was mean. But ok... I'm ok with it. Really.

After lunch I decided to walk around a bit... wanted to buy a few t-shirts... but I ended up not buying much. First cause I was too tired to walk around. Second cause I didn't want to spent MORE money. So I ended up going back to Guild booth. I sat there a bit... with Edgar and Jamie. Sandeep stopped by, he was hungry so I gave him chocolates and Pringles...

Oh yeah, I guess now it's a good time for the chocolates background story, since I forgot to talk about it earlier. Here it goes:

We have this chocolate here in Brazil. I'd say it's the most popular one here. Inside there's this cream thing made of cashew nuts, which I think it's a typical fruit of Brazil?? I don't think there's cashew in North America, Europe and places like that. I think it's a South America thing. I might be wrong. Anyway, so when I lived in Ireland, I used to buy these chocolates for my Irish friends in a Brazilian shop, and they loved it. So I always guessed it's a nice (and cheap... =P) Brazilian gift.

So back in 2008, Felicia (again, being super awesome as she always is) sent me a gift. She sent me a Dr. Horrible poster signed by her, Neil and Nathan. So I wanted to sent her something. They were filming Season 2, so I sent around 50 of those chocolates to her and everyone at the set. And they told me they loved it, so... when I confirmed that I was going to Comic Con, I decided to bring more of those with me. So I did. I had 100 of those and gave it to a bunch of people at the Con. End of story.

Back to where I stopped...

I stayed around Guild booth until the end of the day. Some time during Sunday I got a Retardid Policeman dvd signed by Greg. Or maybe it was Saturday. I don't know. Later Kim signed it too! =)

Soon after Sandeep stopped by, Felicia came back to the booth... which was surprising cause, as mentioned before, I thought I wouldn't see her again after the morning signing. And then when she left, I said bye to her. Again.

Continued at the booth. Guildies started to show up. Everybody was pretty tired and didn't want to do anything else. I think that was when I finally got all the signatures on my Season 2 dvd, as you can see HERE.

Later, since I was doing nothing anyway, I started to hand out this Xbox Guild cards, with the code for people to download the Music Video. So that kept me busy.

And then later, I'd say about 1 hour before the closing time, Felicia shows up again... and I thought "And I've said bye to her twice already........". She sat at the booth until the end of the Con. Signed more stuff to everyone who stopped by the booth. Very nice of her.

By the closing time a bunch of us were there... and then came the sad part. To say bye to everyone. Some had gone earlier (Fernie and Jeff Valdez we said bye on Saturday...), but most were there at the end of the Con. Me, Eva and Sam stayed until the Con staff kicked us out. We had to take Jenni's chair and call Stuart so he could pick us up. And then just before we were leaving I went for the 3rd and final bye to Felicia. I asked for another pic, said thanks for her and Kim for being so nice to me. Said bye to everyone else who was still there (Jamie, Brian...), and left.

Me, Eva and Sam waited for Stuart. Nas waited with us. Stuart arrived soon after we left the Con, so we got into the car, said bye to Nas and we went to Jenni's house.

And that was the end of Comic Con.

We had pizza at Jenni's, then I went to pack my stuff, which proved to be hard. Fit everything in my bag. But I eventually got it.

Also on Sunday night I had to say bye to Sam and Jenni, cause Stuart was the one that would take me and Eva to the airport the next day. It was REALLY sad to say bye to Jenni, and I barely said anything because, honestly, I thought I was going to cry if I spoke too much. But again, the interwebs helped me with this and later I told Jenni how amazing she was and how I'm forever grateful for everything she did for me. THANK YOU, JENNI!

We woke up early, Eva's flight was 6 am (mine 8am) and went to the airport. Said bye to Stuart, then I said bye to Eva and went to my flight's terminal. I had lots of flights issues (cancelled flight, they sent me to LA, all day waiting...), but I'm not gonna go into that here.

To finish this off I wanna go back and talk a bit about all the awesome people I met.

I might forget some, and I'm really sorry about that. But I'll try to remember everyone... I'll talk a bit more about some people, but that doesn't mean any preference order or anything like that.

Jenni and Stuart: Just told a bit about her above, but I feel like I need to say it again. She was busy. She was sick. And she still did her best so we could have a good time at the Con. She was the best host I could ask for, and she's just an amazing person. Thanks Jenni. (ps: I'm sad I barely have pics of/with you...) And then there's Stuart, who is such a great guy, was there to help Jenni all the time, is just one of those people that are great to hang out with, and was also super nice to drive us to (and back from) the Con on Sunday, and then to the airport on Monday morning. Thanks, Stu! (I also don't have pics of you... =/ )

Eva, Nas and Sam: Probably the three people that I hung out with more. Great, funny and enjoyable people to hang out with. Sam is hilarious and was a true champ waking up early so we'd be at the Con early to get in lines and stuff. He's the guy that will make you laugh even if you're dead tired. And a laugh when you can only think of getting home and sleep is always welcome. Eva, as pointed out by others, was the most centered one, and it was nice to have someone that didn't look as "OMG! OMG!" as the rest of us... (Ok, as me... whatever.) She's also a lovely person to hang out and talk to. And Nas... Oh... we all wanted to kill Nas at some point, didn't we? But that's what makes him Nas, I guess. But something that has to be pointed out about Nas is that he is, in fact, THAT nice to everyone. He's ready to help with ANYTHING you need. He's the first one to drop something he wants to do if that means helping someone or just keeping someone company. And that, Nas, it's pretty damn awesome.

Nathan, Jeff Valdez and Lydia: Others that I hung out with quite a bit too. And it was always a pleasure to talk to you guys. Nathan... you are awesome, dude! What a fun and sweet person to hang out with! It was so nice to meet you in person! And thanks for joining Jenni, Eva and Sam for picking me up at the airport! Jeff, you are NOT "just some skinny guy who is quiet and awkward in person". You're not awkward at all! A bit quiet? Yes. But maybe that's just cause the rest of us were too noisy. =) ... You are a great guy and I'm so glad you joined us at the Con. Lydia... another lovely person, very centered as Eva. Lydia came from so far! Farther than me! I hope you had a wonderful time like I did, so the long trip was worth it. =)

Kenny, Edgar, Brian and Jamie... You were all awesome working so hard at the booth! Kenny is a sweetheart! He's like a teddy bear and you just wanna hug him! =) ... Edgar... Well... he's Edgar. He's hilarious and yet serious, and you never know what's he's gonna say next. He keeps conversations interesting and there's never a boring time around Mr. Garcia. It was a pleasure to meet you, Edgar! And thanks so much for the 'I Fight Dragons' stuff (and thanks IFD for sending it to me!) and for the awesome Edgar bobblehead!! And for buying my Dollhouse dvd! ... Brian, who I hadn't talked that much in Guild chat before (just a few times), is another great dude, and very hard working! And you could never guess he was working all day, cause he was nice and had a smile on his face all the time. =) And then Jamie, who was Guild boothmate and is just an awesome guy. I said this on previous posts, but I'll say again... He's one of those people that you meet and like instantaneously. He signed this shiny Serenity RPG book I bought from him (with a nice discount!) and gave me another book as a gift on Sunday! Thanks Jamie!

Luis, Jim, Matt, Howard, Ethan, Will and others... Saw/Talked less of/with you guys than the rest, but it was still a pleasure. Thanks for the company while waiting in lines. For joining us for at least one lunch/dinner. And for hanging out around Guild booth too.

Ryan and Kroze: Ryan I only saw for a few and quick moments, but still I'm glad I did see you. I'd be sad if I left the Con without meeting you. Kroze we only saw one time, he was working on his own booth, but he stopped by Guild booth to say hi to us, which was very nice! A lovely surprise!

Other people (mostly Browncoats): Sad I didn't hang out with you guys. But it was still nice to see some of you there after reading your comments on Whedonesque/Guild Community for so long!

I'm really sorry if I left anyone out... I didn't mean to. It's hard to organize everything that happened and to write it down. I met SO many people. I saw SO many things.

I could talk about the Guild cast and rest of the crew too, but I did already in the previous posts... so I won't repeat myself. They were all awesome!

To close this off, I just wanna say more 2 things...

1- There's a LOT of people (mostly Guildies) that couldn't go... and I REALLY wish you guys were there. I'm not gonna go through all the names, but you know who you are.

2- If it's not clear enough... I had an AMAZING time. I'm silly... I say "awesome" a lot. I can be a bit annoying when too excited. But I want you guys to know that what truly made this experience as good as it was, was all of you. And for that I'm forever thankful.

I think it's almost impossible for me to go again in the near future. But I hope I can see at least some of you again... And until that, there's always the internet, right?

Thanks for everything! And that's it for my Comic Con report.

• Dani
• Jenni
• Kenny
• Nas (despite my murderous tendencies)
• Matthew
• Edgar
• Lydia
• Jeff
• Luis
• Scarbuck
• Nathan
• Sam
• Brian
• Stuart
• Felicia
• Vince
• Tara
• Kim
• Amy
• Robin
• Jeff
• Sandeep
• Maurissa
• Fernie
• Sean
  

//Eva

Well, It's been over a week since returning from San Diego, Comic Con and recovering from the flu (don't ask if it was H1N1 because they didn't test me for it).

I must say that it's going to be difficult to go into as much detail about the Con as Dani has so far (I commend you, Dani!).  I will however say that it was indeed an experience!  I suppose one way to describe it is that I felt like a deer caught in the headlights.  I was stun-bunnied at the sight of thousands upon thousands of people roaming and milling around the convention center.  I mean, I've been to places like Tokyo and Shanghai, but they're cities and people eventually disperse.  Here, people are all concentrated around the convention center and the Gaslamp District.  I wasn't claustrophic or anything, but it's nice to get somewhere out in the open to just decompress.

Other thoughts and views about SDCC?  All I can say is that it was indeed an experience.  One of my main reasons for going was for The Guild.  Anything else beyond that was icing on the cake.  I had originally thought about going to a few of the panels other than The Guild, but when I realized I would have to be in line for what could be a couple of hours, I got discouraged and instead roamed around the Exhibit Hall.  I tell ya, that exhibit hall is HUGE.  I still don't think I was able to see everything in the hall.

What amazes me are the number of huge lines that form around some of the booths, especially around the big names like Hasbro, WB, etc. What are the lines for?  More often than not they are for some free swag the exhibitor is going to hand out.  Not sure what some of the free stuff was, but I've noticed that sometimes they were these ginormous bags with images of some movie or show on them.  They seem so big and clumsy, but at the same time, so many people were carrying them.  Once in a while, someone might be giving out free tshirts or samples.  There seem to be an endless number of buttons being handed out.  So many buttons have been handed out that people were wearing them on their lanyards.  Buttons are cool, though.  I picked up a few along the way.  The ones that matter to me most are the ones I got related to The Guild. :)

I must say that I was not immune to parting with some money on some of the wares that were put out for sale.  I forget how many different t-shirts I had picked up.  I got a hoodie from Gama-Go and Tokidoki.  Now, I KNOW I told myself that I would not buy another bag for some time, but when I saw the Tokidoki booth and what they had to offer, it was kinda like, "Ooooooh!  Must. Have."  And, uh, well, I did.  I got myself this cute Tokidoki bag.  Ok, nuff that.

Anyway, Dani had already described The Guild Panel and the LoN panel, both of which I did go to.   She did such a great job writing about them, so there's no need to say much more.  Will I do this again next year?  I can't say for sure.  It all depends on teh circumstances.  Things change, you know.  But we'll see. :)

//Eva

Ok. Next is...

Saturday

Should be less Guild stuff in this, and I realize I originally set this blog for Guild stuff, but... ah, whatever, you forgive me, right?

(Edit: Now that I finished this post, I have to say it's the most confusing post... There was a lot going on... Hard to write about it.)

As soon as we arrived at the Con (our normal time was around 8:45... Cause Jenni had to be there at 9 everyday) I went to Ballroom 20 line. I wanted to see the Chuck panel, and it was the first panel of the day, at 10am. The line was HUGE. I thought I wasn't getting in, or I would, but get a crappy seat. Met some cool people in line and had nice conversations. Also, since the "lines are closed" thing the day before and seeing the Comic Con volunteers organizing the line on Saturday... my respect for them grew. Not that I didn't respect them before, hehe, but just seeing them being super nice and working hard to keep everything organized... and I think that's what makes Comic Con work, even with the craziness and the sea of people.

Line started to move. Got into the room. It was pretty packed already, they only let people who were alone to go look for seats closer to the stage. I was alone, so they let me pass. I almost didn't find a seat, but I guess I was lucky and found one in the last minute. A good seat. Not AS close as the one I had for Dollhouse, but in a distance that I could see everything, and it was the first line after a  free space (a hall... can I call it a hall?... the space between the first group of chairs and the rest...) so no one sitting in front of me, which helps, cause I'm really short.

Chuck panel starts. A video. Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak and Zachary Levi doing this funny act about what's Zack would do now... and he was like "What? What do you mean? Did we get cancelled?" and then Josh (or was it Chris?) got a call and they were like "We were renewed! And we have no story lines!!". Anyway, it's hard to describe. It was funny. You had to be there.

After the video... one of the most "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!" moments at Comic Con (and I had TONS of awesome moments... it's hard to select the "top" ones). If you don't watch Chuck, it won't make sense... but if you do... You know "Jeffster", right? The ridiculous music duo formed by the characters Jeff and Lester. So yeah... after the video... Vik Sahay (Lester) and Scott Krinsky (Jeff) take the stage and... sing! They sing! It was like a rock concert! It was MAD. It was unbelievably hilarious and cool and they rocked it! I filmed it but I haven't uploaded it... my video is VERY shaky cause I was filming with one hand and taking pics with the other. There's youtube videos of it though, so go watch that. Also, by the middle of the song the whole cast (plus Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz) joined the stage and they were rocking it too! Zach (Chuck), Joshua Gomez (Morgan) and Adam Baldwin (Casey) even stood on the chairs! They were all really into it. It was amazing. Really. REALLY.

The panel started, it was great. The whole cast there... they were SO happy Chuck got renewed! And the Firefly and Joss moments!! It's a running joke with the cast that Adam always gets more cheering than all the others cause he was in Firefly... so right in the beginning of the panel there was this moment when Adam says something like "A name that works on Comic Con is... Joss Whedon!", and the crowd goes wild, hehe. (Youtube video here) And other one about Action Figures... ("Take that Jayne!! You're not so shiny now, are you?") SO good. The whole Chuck cast is awesome, and the only sad thing is that they are so many, so some didn't say much... Like Yvonne... I'll get back to Yvonne in a bit. So anyway, GREAT panel.

After the panel I went to the WB booth to try to get into Chuck signing. I knew it'd be hard, but there was no tickets, so I thought maybe I had a chance. Turns out I didn't. LOTS of people there and soon after I was in line the WB staff told us the line was closed for Chuck signing. I waited anyway. For about 1 hour. Then when the signing started I saw that there was no way I'd get in, so I gave up. BUT, here's where we go back to the "Fox booth is a zoo" from last post... Very different from the Fox booth, we could actually walk by Warner booth and take pictures of the people signing. There was a huge crowd around it? Yes. But it was still possible to see them, and even say a little and silly "You are awesome!". I was kinda sad for not getting into the signing, but happy I could actually see them. I got some good pictures, got to exchange a few words with Ryan McPartlin... and he... is... hot!... I don't usually say that, cause seems too shallow, but he is. Very. He also seems like a very nice guy, and had a big smile when I said "Ryan, you're awesome!" (which must be something he hears a LOT... I mean, the guy plays a character named "Capt. Awesome"!). Said hi to Sarah Lancaster... saw all the cast... Adam again... but the highlight of all the Chuck thing was Yvonne. Yvonne........ here's another fangirl moment. I <3 Yvonne. She's the main reason I like Chuck. She was the one person from the signing that I'd REALLY like to see. I couldn't get so close to her, but then I said "Yvonne!"... She looked at me... I pointed my camera... she held a smile. My camera was being annoying on Saturday. It took a while. She patiently waited. And I got one of my favorite pics from the Con. This one. I put the camera down, said "Thank you, Yvonne. You're awesome!". She smiled again, and turned her head to the next person coming in the signing line. And that... MADE MY DAY.

The next things are a bit mixed in my mind, and I'm not 100% sure of the order of things... but anyway, here's how I think it went:

After Chuck signing I went to Dark Horse booth to ask one again what time the raffle for Dr. Horrible signing would be... when I get there I see Jane Espenson leaving!!!

If you don't know who Jane is... shame on you!!! She's a fantastic writer and worked on shows like Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Tru Calling, BSG... and it's working on Dollhouse and Caprica! She is great!

She had a signing at the Dark Horse booth, but I missed it cause I was at the Chuck thing, so it was great to see her there!!

I asked for a pic and damn I was having camera issues that day! I tried to take the pic 4 times!!!! And the one that finally worked isn't even that good. I kept telling her "It's ok, you can go... I'm taking your time..." and she was all "No, no. I'm not going anywhere. Take your time!". She asked if I wanted anything signed, but I didn't have anything with me that she could sing... so she started to look in her purse to see if she had anything to give me!!! YES!! She's that awesome! Until I finally remembered I had this notebook thing they were giving away at the Fox booth, and it had blank pages, so I asked her to sign there. I <3 Jane!

So then asked what I wanted at Dark Horse booth, and went back to Guild booth... I think I went back there for no reason. Just, again, to "re-group". And I'm only mentioning again cause I wanna link to THIS pic. We had met Vince and Tara's Mom on Preview Night, and she's great! Really, really great! I definitely see why Vince and Tara are so cool and awesome! Runs in the family! What a lovely person! And she asked us to take a pic with her! Us!!!

Then I went to the Atom.com booth cause the LoN cast was there and I wouldn't be able to go to their signing, but I still wanted to get Tony's autograph on my LoN poster (previously signed by Sandeep and Felicia). Went there, Felicia was doing interviews... Sandeep and Tony probably waiting to be interviewed too. George Ruiz (Felicia's agent) was there too. I got Tony's autograph, took a pic with him (but my camera failed on me and both pictures turned out very bad, so I didn't even post it...), took a pic with George, and left. I think they did a Rock band thing there.. I don't know.

Left Atom.com booth, I think I went back to Guild booth and met with Nathan, Luis and Jeff (not sure...), and we went to the Dark Horse booth to check the raffle results for the Dr. Horrible signing. Now, I'll go back to Chuck signing line to tell something...

Back in Chuck line I was talking to 3 people. They all liked Chuck and all, but from what they told me, they would stay in line even if they didn't get into Chuck's signing, cause they wanted anyone's autograph. As long as it was someone famous. And worse, one guy there had over 20 tickets for the Dr. Horrible raffle (I had just one... cause I'm stupid like that and didn't think of getting more) and he DIDN'T EVEN KNEW WHO JOSS IS!!!! He had never seen Dr. Horrible! AND he had never seen Dollhouse but he got a ticket and got into it too!!! He just wanted Joss's autograph cause he's famous!!! I wanted to KILL him! KILL!!! There I was dying to meet Joss cause I love and admire the man for years, and this stupid dude didn't even care and had over 20 raffle tickets!!!!!

Ok, story time over, back to us checking the raffle results...
Nathan had a lot of tickets too (but I forgive him cause he's a Whedon fan), but none of us had a winning ticket. After I checked mine I went to talk to a lady from the Dark Horse booth. I wanted to know what would happen if someone with a wining ticket didn't show up. I wanted to know if there was any chance I could still try to get a ticket. I was very calm (or too sad to be all crazy fan), so I think that helped... I had a calm and polite tone and I just stayed there talking to her... I told her how I saw people like that dude in Chuck line that had tons of tickets and didn't even know Joss... I told her how I came from Brazil and Joss is the reason I know about Comic Con. I gave her chocolates (This may or may not have helped in what happens next... =P). She was a very nice lady and I think she felt bad for me. After a bit she calls me to a corner of the booth and GIVES ME A TICKET!!! She gave me a ticket!!! Just like that!!! SHE GAVE ME A TICKET!!!! And then I cried. I cried like a little girl. And I hugged her. I'm not a big hugger, but I hugged her. And I cried. And she said "I always do that for someone and you deserve it... we do this for the real fans. Enjoy!". There was already a line starting, so I sat there in line. And then I cried more. And I am SO happy there was still lots of time until the signing cause took me a long while to recover.

So I was there, in line to meet Joss. I started to sort out stuff I had for him to sign. It was a LOT of stuff. I didn't know if he'd be able to sing it all, but I kept most of it in my hands. Some I left in my bag... it was just too much stuff. I chatted with some folks in line, that helped me to control myself again. And I was one of the first people in line.

Before the signing I saw Zack arriving, and I saw Julie Landau passing by and getting into this closed area of the booth, so I figured Joss was there already. Juliet had a signing earlier, but I couldn't make it, so it was nice to see her... even if it was REALLY fast and I didn't speak to her.

And then it starts... Joelle Jones (Dr. Horrible comics artist), Maurissa, Zack and Joss stand in their places. Jed wasn't there. There was this cute moment right before the signing started where we (me and the guys next to me) asked Maurissa (she was right in front of us) where was Jed and she said "Jed couldn't come... but he's here with me..." (something like that... I'm not sure of the exact words).

I was nervous. SO nervous. And I embarrassed myself right from the start. They were selling Joelle's sketchbook, but I thought they were selling the art that we'd get signed and I rushed myself to find the money and the guy asked "Are you buying the sketchbook?" and I go "Don't we have to buy it to get the autograph?", and he explains and I say "Oh, then no..." and I heard myself saying that and thought "Ok, that sounds bad...", so I go "Now you made me feel bad..." and I bought it. But I got SO nervous that I didn't even give it to Joelle to sign it, so... I felt like a jerk.

Next in line was Maurissa... and I embarrassed myself more... I started with "I don't know if you remember me... from Guild party..." and she says "Yes, I remember!", cause she's super sweet and would say that anyway (though I'm pretty sure she really did remember).

We had 2 Dr. Horrible arts to get signed. And the guy at the beginning said they could only signed those items. But as mentioned before I had LOTS of stuff in my hands... Maurissa saw the Dollhouse dvd (not really the dvd, but this thing they had on the dvd) and said she could sign it too. So I gave it to her, and the Dr. Horrible dvd. She asked if I was at the Dollhouse panel, I said yes. I told her I LOVED Epitaph One. And then I asked for a pic. And then I embarrassed myself. AGAIN. I was using my smaller camera, cause it's easier to use and the plan was to help me NOT embarrass myself with camera issues, but I forgot to set the zoom back (it was pushed to the max from the last time I used it), so the pic turned out to be a pic of just Maurissa's face. She saw that it was that way and said I could take another one... I said: "Are you sure? It's gonna slow down the line..." (I was nervous. That may have been some shaking in my voice), but she said "No, no... it's ok." And we took another one.

Next in line was Zack. Zack is quieter. I only got the Dr. Horrible arts signed. The Dr. Horrible dvd. Asked for a pic and moved on. And you'd think that's quick enough not to embarrass myself right??? Oh no... not for me. Right when he was signing the stuff Joss looked at me (well, he looked to see where was the next person in line), and I went "Hi Joss!!!".... Who does that??? I was in front of Zack, getting him to sign my stuff.... and I look away from him and say "Hi Joss!!!" ???? Again, I felt like a jerk.

And then I moved to Joss... And it was SO hard not to cry again. I started to talk to him. I told him I was a huge fan. I told him came from Brazil basically for him and Felicia. He asked if I was at the Guild panel, I say yes. He asked if I liked it, and say "YES! It was awesome!" (cause clearly awesome is the word I used most at the Con). I think we said other stuff, I really can't remember the details. Did I mention I was nervous? I know that as I spoke I started to tear up and I was REALLY trying hard not to cry like a baby again. I gave him the 2 Dr. Horrible arts, and I don't know what happened but I moved the other stuff to my other hand and didn't hand it to him, but cause he's AWESOME and couldn't be nicer, he sees the other stuff in my hands and says "I can sign those too...", so he also signs my Dr. Horrible dvd, my Dollhouse dvd thing, and my Serenity dvd. And then... guess what?? I embarrass myself. Again. I was so nervous that for a moment I forgot Jed wasn't there and as I looked to my Dollhouse dvd I thought "Oh damn it, I forgot to ask Jed to sign this...", but as mentioned, Jed wasn't there... and I actually said out loud "Oh, I forgot to ask him to sign my Dollhouse dvd...", and Joss thought I was talking about Zack, because obviously Jed wasn't there. And he goes "It's ok, he's not in Dollhouse...", which I KNOW, and because of that he thought I didn't. And I felt like a jerk again. But anyway, I say "Thank you, Joss!", ask for a pic. We take the pic. I say thanks again. And then I turn my back and walk. And BAM, start to cry like a baby again. I was SO nervous (How many times have I said that? Lots. But I was VERY nervous) that I had 4 Brazilian chocolates to give them and I forgot!!! And I hate myself a bit for it. As soon as I left the line I saw the woman who gave me the ticket again and she asks "Are you happy?", I say "Yes!" and I cry more. And I hug her again. It was all very ridiculous to watch, I bet.

And then I left. Normally I'd stay around and take pictures from the side of the booth, but I was just disoriented... so I just walked towards Guild booth, my "safe point" at the Con. My harbor, you could say (Aaannnndddd, that was cheesy!). I forced myself to stop crying and I ALMOST succeeded. I arrive at the booth, get my camera and show everyone my pic with Joss... I remember Jenni saying "Yey!!!" and Kenny "You met Joss???" and I started to say something but I could feel tears coming back, so I walked away from the booth and went to sit next to the MGM booth wall.

I don't know if I mentioned this on the previous posts, but the Con halls are VERY busy, and you can't just stop and sit there. BUT, right across from Guild booth there was MGM booth, and they had this wall (not really a wall, but kinda... the back of the booth), and it was PERFECT cause we could sit there without actually being in the way of people walking in the hall. And we could watch Guild booth from there. It was out resting point.

So yeah, I sat there and started to stare at my pic with Joss. I probably looked like an idiot. Eva and Fernie showed up and sat next to me. And I showed them the pic and then BAM... The crying starts again. Uncontrollable crying. Sobbing.

I talked to Joss.

Yeah.

I don't know how to continue this blog now. How to link THAT with the next thing... Let's make it a clean cut.

Next: Legend of Neil panel!

I truly can't remember how was it, but somehow I met with Nas, Lydia and... I'm not sure who was with us. I think just the 3 of us. And we went to the room of the Legend of Neil panel. We got there early. Like 2 panels early. Apparently there was a line, but somehow the girl at the door let us in. We got first row seats. Saved seats for other guildies. And waited. I don't remember the panel going on when we got in, but the next one was about City of Heroes. Which was surprisingly interesting, even though I had never heard of it before.

I wanna take a pause here to apologize to Nas. I think I was rather rude to him for no reason at all. I noticed something about myself... after a very happy moment, or a big thing, I sometimes don't know how to respond to... well... anything. I get disorientated and I need time to think and I need to spend some time not saying anything. And Nas was talking to me while we waited for the LoN panel and I was rude, because I was in that weird state of mind. So... sorry Nas.

But ok, back to it... Other guildies arrived later and then it was time for the Legend of Neil panel! I have to say that I watched the whole first season, and I even volunteered to make LoN subtitles (though they already had volunteers, so I didn't do it...), but I was never as crazy about LoN as I am with the Guild. I watch it. I like it. I wouldn't call myself the biggest fan ever though. BUT that might have changed after the panel... Sandeep went on stage, and introduced the first 3 Season 2 episodes!!! 3!!! And OMG, Season 2 looks AMAZING. I laughed SO much! I'd say that if you loved Season 1, you'll die laughing with Season 2! SOOOO good! Especially episode 3... Oh man, wait until you see Season 2, Episode 3... I DARE YOU not to laugh! I wish I could say more about it, but I don't wanna spoil it...

Sandeep did a wonderful job! The panel was great! Great questions! Everyone got to speak a bit (in the panel were Sandeep, Tony, Felicia, Mike Rose and Scott Chernoff), and it was just a fantastic way to finish my Saturday at the Con.

After the Neil panel a bunch of us went to have dinner. We saw all the Guild cast leaving the panel, which was awesome... that they all went there to support Sandeep. And funny thing, while we were leaving to have dinner, Felicia and Kim were leaving to their hotel, so we got to walk a bit with them. We made this kinda bubble around them... like Felicia's bodyguards, lol.

I didn't want to bother her, but I did want to tell her that I met Joss, so I did... and again, cause she's awesome and sweet she said she was happy for me, asked how it was and stuff. And I told her about the crying, which I shouldn't have, cause that sounded silly... But anyway. I might not have expressed myself well, but what I really wanted to say is that I was grateful... cause I wouldn't be at the Con if it wasn't for her... for The Guild. That's what motivated me to go to the Con, and I went and I met Joss!! So that's what I wanted to say. But I didn't cause I'm not the most articulate person when talking face to face. But I did get to say this after, with the help of the interwebs, hehe, so I'm good.

Anyway... then they went their way, we went to find somewhere to eat. Which was a hard task. Note for future Cons: It's fun to have big group dinners, but it's VERY hard to find a place with available seats for large groups JUST after the Con. We were 14. Took us a long long time until we were able to get into TGI Friday's and eat.

But it was fun. I had a HUGE burger. And overall it was a great night. I have a video that I filmed there, but I haven't uploaded yet. It includes Stuart making funny faces though, so... I mean... it's a MUST SEE! And I'll have it up later.

Then we went back to Jenni's house... and slept. And that... was Saturday.

I talked to Joss.

Ok, as I said in the last post, Friday was the big day, so I had to split it into 2 parts... So...

Friday [Whedon stuff and more]

Picking up where I stopped in the last post, after Guild panel and signing I went to Ballroom 20 line. Nas, Luis, Lydia and Jeff joined me. On the way to Ballroom 20 we see Greg Benson! As mentioned before, Greg was at the Guild panel, he was the director/editor for Guild Season 1, he's Kim's husband, and he's the creator of MediocreFilms (that created Retardid Policeman, Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, and other funny stuff...). If you ever watched one of Greg's videos, you know he likes to interview random people and make them feel uncomfortable! =P And so what he does? Stops us. A bunch of Guildies. Poor Greg... didn't know we knew who he was. He tried to impress us saying he knew Felicia Day, and was expecting us to go "No way!!!", but that didn't work... =P So sorry Greg, for ruining your video.

We made a quick stop on Guild booth (I don't even remember why... I just liked to stop by there between everything I did) and headed to Ballroom 20 line. Or so we thought. We get there. And the line is closed. Yes, there was so many people that they closed the line!! So a bunch of people formed this... crowd (cause we couldn't officially form a line to the line) and waited next to the doors to see if the line would open again. Nas gave up and left. Luis soon left to buy something to eat, but he was coming back... And then they opened the lines again! WAY faster than I thought. In all the years reading about Comic Con, I've heard how bad Hall H and Ballroom 20 lines were. Hall H did seem horrible (though I didn't go to anything there), but Ballroom 20 was way better than I expected. The line is gianormous, yes. But it's very well organized and it moves fast. Believe me, a line like that here it Brazil?? It would be a gorram chaos. So yeah, I felt bad cause Luis missed the line opening cause we was getting food... but I think he got in later. So anyway, the line wasn't bad. I chatted with Jeff and Lydia a lot, it was actually fun. I was prepared to only get into the room right before Dollhouse panel, but for my surprise, we got in for the 24 panel! (24 was at 2pm, Dollhouse 4pm). We got in and got separated. No way to find seats together. My first impression was HOLY SHIT THIS ROOM IS BIG! I found a seat and stayed there. A crappy seat. A VERY crappy seat. I could barely see the stage... I could see the big screens, but I ALMOST got a little depressed thinking "OMG, I can't believe I'll be inside the room and have to watch Joss from the screen....", but I soon thought "Well, maybe I can move seats between the panels...", asked if that was possible to a lady next to me, she said yes, so that calmed me down. I had at least 2 chances to move and get a better seat. So I decided to relax and enjoy that I was sitting for a while.

I don't care about 24. I've never seen it. And don't plan to. Just doesn't interest me. BUT, still the panel was fun. Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from BSG) was there! David Fury (writer from Buffy and Angel... News guy from Dr. Horrible) !! And Freddie Prince Jr. I don't care for Freddie, but there was a cool moment with him...

Freddie, if you don't know, is married to Sarah Michele Gellar. I have a weird love-hate thing with SMG. I don't like her... (not that I "know" her, but you get my point) but she's Buffy!! But I'm not gonna get into that here. ANYWAY, so Freddie is talking about how he likes 24... and he goes..."me and my wife watch it..." and after the "wife", the crowd goes wild! =P There's a youtube video of that, but somehow on the video it doesn't sound as loud as it was. And then after that he goes "Oh yeah... I forgot she's bigger than me." ... And that, was kinda awesome. =P There was also some nice moments where the mention of "BSG" or "Starbuck" would cause insane cheering... and that's always fun.

24 panel ended. I go for my first move! I was WAY back in the room, so I didn't know how long I could go and not risk not finding a seat at all. But lots of people left after 24, so I found a seat after the middle of the room. I WAS IN THE CLOSER-TO-THE-STAGE HALF OF THE ROOM!!! And I was like "This is perfect!" already. Got a good seat and stayed there. I could see the stage perfectly. I was happy.

Next was Bones panel. I like Bones. I'm not CRAZY about it, but I like it. Sadly only Emily Deschanel and Hart Hanson were there. Boreanaz couldn't go cause his wife was about to give birth. But who I'd really love to see there is the rest of the cast... Then again, Bones is not really Sci-Fi, so it's not like it's REALLY Comic Con material, right? But the panel was fun... Emily is very funny and seems to be a lovely person. I had good laughs and enjoyed the panel more than I thought I would.

And then the Bones panel was over... and even though I was happy with my seat, I tried another move! And when I was almost thinking "Damn, I'm not finding a seat..." and saw one! In the 8th row!!! And then I asked "Is this seat free???", and I hear someone else asking the same question, AT THE SAME TIME! And I look and it was Howard!!! (Howard, that I mentioned meeting at the Guild panel line) Howard was so nice and let me have the seat! THANKS HOWARD!! (But he got a seat in the next row later, so glad that worked out!).

And then we wait. I was in a "I don't believe I'm here" state of mind... I was in Ballroom 20. Waiting for a Joss Whedon panel. And I was in the 8th row!! In the 8th row!! I could see EVERYTHING. And Joss Whedon would be on stage in a bit! HOW DID ALL OF THIS HAPPEN???? And then Joss enters... The crowd. The cheering. It was AMAZING. Again, you probably have no idea what this means to me... I've watched countless Joss's panels. Youtube is my friend after all Cons. But now... I was there! =)

Joss talks about... stuff... (I can't remember)... and then he introduces "Epitaph One". The Dollhouse "lost" episode. The 13th episode. The FELICIA DAY episode! And it starts... HUGE screen. I could see perfectly. I managed to stay pretty much spoiler-free, so that was nice. The episode is AWESOME. You reading this probably watched it already, so I'm not gonna go on about it. But what I will say is that it was thrilling and exciting to watch it for the first time on that huge screen with over 4000 people (Comic Con says Ballroom 20 capacity is 4,200). The "ooohhhh"s and the gasping and the cheering. Awesome.

Then Joss comes back to the stage. And introduces Eliza. And the Q&A starts. It was SO good. Great questions. Some hilarious bits ("Joss, you killed Penny. You bastard!!"), and overall a super enjoyable panel. I was mostly just watching Joss. Seeing him laugh. It was amazing. But, to be honest, I was a little disappointed that only Joss and Eliza were there (seems SO wrong to put "only" and "Joss" in the same sentence)... I wanted to see Dichen, and Enver, and Amy, and I wanted Felicia to come on stage... But ok. I made my peace with it. BUT WAIT!! What's Eliza and Joss talking about?? Something about a call? Uh??? I got distracted for a second and got lost... but then Eliza says something like "I have some friends backstage, I should call them..."... something like that. And Dichen and Fran join the stage!!!!! DICHEN!!!!!

I'm pretty sure it's online somewhere (Twitter? WatchTheGuild Community?) what I said about the first Dollhouse episodes... and I remember saying "Dichen, she's the one to watch...". But, to be honest, Sierra is not my favorite character. Yet, I developed a fangirl thing for Dichen. I blame her tweets and I blame someone else, but I shall not talk about that. Anyway, my point is, apart from Joss, Dichen was the one I wanted to see from Dollhouse! And there she was!!!! She didn't say much... but it's ok. She was sitting right next to Joss, so that was helpful for me. I could watch both of them with no distractions. =P ... I think I barely looked at Fran. And then the panel was over. Bitter-sweet. I just had an awesome and unbelievable Comic Con experience, and that's good, but it was over...

Anyway, there was a panel I was thinking about seeing after Dollhouse, cause Zachary Levi was going to be there, but I completely forgot about that, and decided to go to Fox booth instead. There was a Dollhouse signing at the Fox booth after the panel, but I didn't get the ticket. They were handing out the tickets the day before, but by the time I found out it was over. I wanted to go there anyway. Just stay around the booth and try to see more of Joss and Dichen (and Eliza, and Fran...). Now, quoting myself from Flickr, what happens next is what I like to call "Fox booth is a zoo" or "my only depressed moment at the con" or my favorite: "the time when my soul was crushed cause Joss and Dichen were right there and I couldn't take a pic with them".

Fox, it just keep making us calling them names... They are just NOT organized. At all. It was a mess. You could argue that it's cause the space is not big enough or whatever, but I mean... Hellooooo... WB booth had space enough for the signings, Dark Horse booth too. Maybe Fox could spend a little more money and get a bigger booth. Or organize the signing somewhere else. I don't know! All I know is that it was a mess and that even people who got tickets got kicked out of the line!

So anyway, there was I... trying to walk around the booth... jumping up and down (really) to try to see them. And I started to get sad. There was going to be a raffle for a Dr. Horrible signing the next day, but I didn't know if I would get in. And even if I did, Dichen wouln't be there. So I came to the realization that I wouldn't get a pic with her. And maybe I wouldn't get a pic with Joss!!! And before the Con, I was ok with that. As long as I saw him, even from a distance, I was ok. But when I got there... so close to the signing... I realized that I wasn't. That I REALLY wanted to be able to say "Hi Joss, I'm a huge fan!" and to take a pic with him. To shake his hand. And not to able to get into the Dollhouse signing, it really made me sad. And maybe... it's possible.. that I had to hold myself not to cry. And I realize how ridiculous and depressing that is. But here's something about me, I cry when I'm nervous. And it's REALLY hard to control. So teared up a little. And I thank everyone that saw me for not pointing it out, in case you noticed, and not laughing.

After a while I walked away and went to Guild booth, waiting for the exhibit hall to close. I kept looking at the Fox booth direction. It was ridiculous and sad, but oh well.

After the hall was closed we went to Jenni's house. We were all very tired already, especially Jenni since she was working a LOT, and she was also sick (The Powell Plague!!!) so we all needed a slower night. Stuart went with us. Stuart is funny. I like Stuart. (Just cause I hadn't talked about him before in my posts... =P) We had Mac n' Cheese!!! And it was DELICIOUS! We don't have Mac n' Cheese here. I mean, I guess lots of people eat Macaroni with cheese, but it's just... not a "thing". Mac n' Cheese. But I liked it! So much that yesterday I attempted to do my own Mac n' Cheese, and it wasn't the same at the one Jenni did, but good enough.

We also had a chance to hang out with Jenni's parents... and clearly the awesomeness runs in the family! LOVELY folks! And we watched this film that Jenni's Mom did for her company, a customer service training video. And it was AWESOME. Has to be the best training video EVER. Very funny! It was a great night, just hanging with Jenni, Stuart, Sam, Eva and Jenni's parents.

So that was it for Friday. Took me a while to sleep. To take it all in. Friday was a good day.

Ok, next one... (edit: It got too big... I'll split Friday into 2 posts)

Friday [Guild stuff]

So Friday was the big day! Guild panel! Dollhouse panel!!!

We woke up early and went to the Con cause we wanted to get into Guild panel, and if possible get good seats. Arrived there, met with Nas, who was already in line, and waited. There was a few tense moments... first when no one was sure which one was the real line, then when Nas lost his camera (but he found it later, so... all good), and finally when the line moved to the room's door and we found that a bunch of people cheated to be in front of the people who got there first. But it's ok... While waiting in line we met a very cool guildie, Howard, and were joined by lots of other guildies (Lydia, Kenny, Luis, Ethan, Jeff Valdez...).

When we got into the room it got packed really quick. We didn't get the best seats ever, but they weren't so bad, and we could all sit together... Now... what comes next is LOTS of fangirl/squee moments, so expect the extensive use of the word "awesome". You have been warned.

First of all, we get there and one of the first things I see if Michele Boyd with a Blue Sun shirt!!! If you don't know what's Blue Sun, 1) I feel sad for you, 2) GO WATCH FIREFLY! NOW!. I wanted to give Michele the last of my Jayne's hats... *pause for a background story*

So, Jayne's hat... again, if you don't know what it is, GO WATCH FIREFLY, NOW!... But if you are reading this, you probably know. So... I have a Jayne's hat, and if you know me you've seen it. I use my pic with a Jayne's hat a lot online. My Mom did it for me. And my Mom has done lots of Jayne hats for Browncoat friends of mine.

When I confirmed that I was going to Comic Con, I asked Mom to do more Jayne's hats, so I could give away to awesome Guildies that are Browncoats too. She did 5. One I had promised to give to Nas. So I had 4 left... One I gave to Jenni, as a small thanks for being an awesome host (and Jenni wore it all the time during the Con, which made me SUPER happy!). One I gave to Eva. One to Sandeep (for his birthday). So I had one left... And after Thursday (see last post) I decided that I was giving it to Michele (and apparently she asked Jenni where she got hers, so that was +1 motive to give her one...).

So this background story was to tell that when I saw Michele with the Blue Sun shirt I was very happy that I saved her the last hat! So I got up, walked to her and gave her the hat. =) ... I forgot to take a pic with her with the hat... but that's ok... I also forgot to take a pic of her wearing the hat, but Kenny got one, and Eva too! So thanks guys!

*I totally controlled myself on the squeeing describing that... point for me!*

So, after that, I was back in my seat... waiting for the panel to start... and then it happens... Joss Whedon walks in. Joss BIG DAMN HERO Whedon!!! I had heard that this might happen (I paid very close attention to everything Jenni said during breakfast everyday... hehe) and yet I was NOT prepared. I can't tell you how much Joss means to me. If you are a Whedon fan, you might know. Or maybe you don't. I just can't explain. I'm a fan for 9 years (I came to the party late...), when I say that Buffy changed my life, it's true. It's not some cheesy fan line. I mean, it is. But it's also true. Buffy is the reason I like the stuff I like today. Buffy is the reason I'm a guildie today, and that took me to San Diego Comic Con! Joss is the reason I know about Comic Con. I truly deeply believe that I am a different person, a better person, today because 9 years ago I became a Buffy fan. So to hell with the "He's just a person" thing. I got nervous. My heart started to race. I was "OMG, Joss is RIGHT there!" (Oh yeah, Jed and Maurissa too... and then Zack...). JOSS FRAKING WHEDON was sitting a few meters from me. In the same room. It was very distracting and I'm glad the panel took a bit to start cause I wouldn't be able to focus. I tried to take pics, but I don't have the best lens ever, so it was kinda far for my camera. Still I got a few... uploaded this one, and this... with the very surreal vision I was having: Joss Whedon in the front row, and Michele Boyd right behind him, with a Blue Sun shirt. My day was perfect already and there was SO much more to come. Did I mention my heart was racing??

But ok, I'll pause the Joss talk from now to speak of the Guild panel.
It started with some guy from Xbox (which I can't possibly remember the name, but you can see on the youtube videos of the panel) introducing Kim Evey. Kim full-of-awesomeness Evey. Kim said some lovely words about the fans, and then introduced the first surprise of the panel. The much talked surprise video. The lights go down. It starts. And OMFG, what a surprise video! We hear Felicia's voice signing (win)... "Do you wanna date my avatar..." (it's hilarious from the first line... win)... It's a music video!! (win) They are using their avatar costumes!!! (OMG, WIN, WIN, WIN!!). And then there's this explosion of awesome that I can't describe. You have to watch it! And the audience, including me, went mad! The screaming, the cheering, the laughing! And OH, VORK AND ZABOO ARE RAPPING!!! And Tink is dancing!! And Maurissa is on the video, dancing too!!!! (and then I got the tweets between Maurissa, Felicia and Amy... I had this whole theory that Maurissa would be in Season 3 as Tink's sister or something... I was wrong. =P) ...It was too awesome for words. The video quality... SO. PRETTY. SO PERFECT. I think I kept saying "Oh My God... Oh My God..." during the whole thing.

And then it was over. And to hear (and be a part of) the applause and to see Kim's face, big smile, was amazing. And then the cast enters... IN THEIR AVATARS COSTUMES!!! Oh man, sooooo good! And THEN I got why I overheard Felicia saying the day before that she needed to be up early and get her hair done. Felicia's hair, btw, looked great. But it always does anyway...

Felicia talks about the video, and tell us that she co-wrote the song with Jed, and that he directed it!!! Very cool. And she also talks about Greg (that I mentioned on the previous post) and that he did the weapons! And talks about the person who did the costumes, and I'm very sorry I can't remember her name right now... But again, go see the panel on Youtube, it's there. Then comes to the stage Mr. Sean Becker (again, I'll call "Sean Becker" the person that people refer as Sean Becker, cause we all know I AM SEAN BECKER). Sean talks a bit about filming Season 3... Points out a few people on the audience (All the crew present, Michele, Tara Caso, and Greg Benson - Kim's husband, director of Season 1)... And then the second surprise, they were going to show us the entire 1st episode of Season 3! (I actually thought everyone knew it already... I did. Or maybe I imagine I read that on Twitter... but anyway...).

So starts the episode... And what a nice start for the Season! I'm not gonna talk much about it cause I don't wanna give away any spoilers, but it's great!!! And then the big spoiler, that everyone knows already, so I'll say... last scene... we see this group of people... we hear a voice... and the guy turns to the camera... and IT'S WIL WHEATON!!! Now... I have never watched Star Trek (except for the new movie... don't hate me!), but I like Wil. I like to follow him on Twitter, I liked him on GTCMS and Retardid Policeman, and other tv stuff too... So my point is, I was super excited when I saw him on screen, now imagine the bigger geeks?! =P Again, the room went crazy. =) And to make things better, Kim says: "We really wanted Wil to be here with us...... so he is!!" and he walks into the room!!!!

Quick re-cap so you get how it was so far: "MUSIC VIDEO!!!!!! AVATAR COSTUMES!!!!! SEASON 3 EPISODE 1!!!! WIL WHEATON IS IN THE GUILD!!! WIL WHEATON WALKS IN!!!!" But wait, there's more... The next surprise was equally cool (or was it before the episode... I'm not sure...). Felicia calls Scot Allie on stage. With the simple mention of Scot Allie I got excited already... If you don't know, Scot Allie is the editor of the Buffy Season 8 comics. And he does a great job! And then Scot announces that they are working on a Guild comic!!! (btw, while I write this, Felicia JUST tweeted saying she's writing the comic!) So much awesomeness in one panel!

So then started the Q&A. Not much to report here... it was great, but go watch it on Youtube. =) ... There was some really cool questions, everyone got to speak a bit, and it made me so happy to watch them on stage all smiling and looking like they were really happy with the audience's response. Also, I spotted Joss laughing of ALL Jeff's jokes, which was super cool.

And then Guild panel was over. I couldn't believe how amazing it was. When we were walking out of the room I walked into the Whedons direction. Normally I wouldn't even try that, but it was Joss... Unfortunately he left too quickly, so I headed back to the exit. Saw Kim as I was leaving the room and told her how much I loved everything, and she had this huge smile on her face. We could see that their hard work paid off.

During the panel they said they were going to give away a new Guild poster with the cast picture with the costumes on the next signing (at the Xbox booth, just after the panel). I wasn't planning to go to this signing, but I did cause I really wanted the poster. =)

Xbox booth was a bit messy... no space to form an organized line and they decide that it's a good idea to hand out free shirts (not related to The Guild) while we were in line, which caused tons of people to stop around the line... very chaotic. When the signing begun it was ok though. I got the new poster, asked Sandeep and Felicia to sign my Legend of Neil poster (which I got for free at the Atom.com booth) and I filmed a video (which if it's uploaded by the time I finish to write this, should be a link HERE). The video shows, again, how Felicia is sweet (and the rest of the cast too). But I'm not gonna be here repeating myself. =P Oh, and here's the poster (I also got Fernie's, Michele's and Tara's autograph on it later)

So, after the signing there was a "Game with fame" thing. Where people could play games at the Xbox booth with The Guild cast. I didn't stay for that cause it was around noon and I wanted to go to the Ballroom 20 line to see if I could get into the room for Dollhouse at 4pm.

Since this post is HUGE already, I'll split Friday into 2 posts. Again, I write a lot. Deal with it.
So that's it for now... not many pics on this one cause I didn't take many pics on the panel. But look for it on Flickr, there's some very good ones.

Thanks again if you manage to read all of this.

Ok. Let's try Thursday and Friday... But first... I'm sorry, I'm not objective. I have a need to describe how comfortable the bed was and what I did when, where, with whom, and how awesome it was...  Mostly cause I'm bad at summarizing, but also cause I think that it's no fun just to say "Wed: Preview night. Went to Guild signing, California Browncoats booth, then dinner with Guildies." So all the posts, they are going to be long.

Thursday: First full day of Comic Con!

I didn't have much scheduled for Thursday (and btw, I had a pretty schedule with priority colors scheme and plans b), and I was set to work on Guild booth at the afternoon, so that was most of my day.

First thing I did when I arrived there in the morning was go to Julie Benz signing in a booth I absolutely don't remember the name, but they were having signings with a bunch of people from the Dexter cast. I bought a Dexter bobblehead at the booth, which I didn't plan on buying, but it looked so cool... and the bag they gave people who bought stuff was cool too, so... I got one. Anyway, Julie Benz: SO sweet! I never REALLY liked Darla, but I like Julie... and I adore her in Dexter. However, I don't follow her THAT much, so I didn't know exactly what to expect from her. She seems like a delightful person! And pretty. VERY pretty. I gave her Brazilian chocolates (uhm, I gotta go back to that later...) and she seemed to really like it. She thanked me and said something like "I'm so gonna eat those now! I'm hungry!". I told her I was a huge Buffy fan... told her I came from Brazil... She said she really wants to visit Brasil, that she's thinking of coming in December, when it's our summer. There was a few more things we quickly talked about, and overall I really liked her! My pic with her didn't turn out so good (that's why I never trust other people to take my pics), but I'm ok with it. I got a pic of her signed and I also asked her to sign this Dexter... uhm... card.. thing. Oh, cute thing about that, when I gave her the card she said "Awww, I love the baby!!". Silly I know, but it was cute. You had to be there. So yeah, that was an amazing way to start my day.

After that I stopped by Guild signing (which was moved to the free autograph area upstairs, to avoid the craziness that was Preview Night signing to happen again). I went there 1- to take pics, and 2- let's be honest, I wanted to see the Guild cast everyday... =P ... I stayed there for a bit chatting with Sean and Edgar. Also asked Kim to sign my Season 2 dvd (I'll link to a pic of it when I talk about the last signature I got on it). From there some of us went to Jared Hoy's (Guild crew member) film (that I can't remember the name now... sorry) screening and Q&A. Very bloody and fun! =P

Then I went downstairs again and went to do the Guild Scavenger hunt! For all of you following @theguild on Twitter, you know that on Thursday they tweeted that there would be a scavenger hunt starting on Guild booth, and the winners would get awesome prizes! So I went there, got my first clue with Brian and started it. Brian did a great job and organized fun clues that took us all around the exhibit hall, stopping by the best booths! hehe

I wasn't going to break down all the clues, but I haven't seen anyone doing it, and I think maybe some of you not there would like to know how it was so... here it goes:

There was 2 objectives: 1) Solve the clues 2) Photo challenges.

The photo challenges were non-sequential, so we could do them at any point, but we had to present the photos before getting clue #4. The photo challenges were (sum from what was written on the rules paper):

- "Separated by birth": Find someone at Comic Con who could have been a twin separated by birth from one of the Guild members. Or they could be a "bizarre universe" version of a Guild character.

- "Hottest avatar": Take a picture of what represents to you the hottest in-game avatar. We're not not going to be picky on the judging, but we challenge you to find an avatar that you would date.

So, I read the rules, and I had the 1st clue...

"Find the booth shown on the other side of this clue and tell them: 'I'm on a mission to make a man out of a mouse' to get clue #2"

On the back of the clue:

Booth # _ _ _

First letter/number: Bladezz sister is: (A) Dena / (B) Tara / (C) Craftzz
Second letter/number: Number of episodes of Joss Whedon's FIREFLY that feature a cameo by Sandeep Parikh.
Third letter/number: Number of Streamy Award nominations for THE GUILD (minus) Number of Streamies won by THE GUILD (minus) Number of years the Streamy Awards existed (equals...).

So the answer was Booth # A07, which happens to be the Browncoat booth!
I got there said the line I was supposed to and a nice lady at the booth told me to repeat it to a Dr. Horrible sitting in a table next to the booth. I did it and he gave me the second clue.

"Find the booth shown on the other side of this clue. Once you find this booth (it's big), go to the PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COUNTER. At this counter, ask them 'Who is Georges Jeanty?' to get clue #3"

On the back of the clue: A drawing of a lamp with an X over it, and a drawing of a horse.
Which of course means... "Dark Horse" booth.

I went to the Dark Horse booth and asked "Who's Georges Jenty?", though I already knew he's a comic writer working on Buffy Season 8 comics... but anyway. I asked and got clue #3.

"Return to The Guild booth and show us your THREE photos from the photo challenges to get clue #4 ... Three? Yep - we added one more photo challenge on the other side of this clue"

On the back...

"Photo challenge #3: Bookmarked! ... Take a picture of a character from Star Wars or Star Trek universe holding/displaying The Guild bookmark (hope you still have it)" [they gave us a bookmark with the rules at the beginning]

So I went to take my pics... "Separated by birth", "Hottest avatar", and "Bookmarked".
And then back to Guild booth to show the pics to Brian. And then got clue #4:

"THE FINAL CLUE!"

We had to find which booth the clue pointed to...
On the back...

Booth # _ _ _ _

First number: Number of letters in the name of the only blonde member of THE GUILD
Second/Third number: Number of regular episodes of THE GUILD released to date.
Forth number: "Sacking Up" is the title of THE GUILD Season Two, Episode...

The answer was Booth #5225, which was Xbox booth.

With that solved I went back to Brian, told him which booth was it, and that was it! I had completed the Scavenger hunt!! And what was my prize?? Brian gave me this shiny button of "Axis of Anarchy" (will find out in Season 3...) and said that this was the ticket to get into a closed Xbox party with Guild cast!!! (I may, or may not, have found out about this earlier that day.... =P)

So I got my new shiny button and left the Con to find something to eat. In the way I saw Sean, Jeff Lewis (Vork) and Robin Thorsen (Clara) walking on the street, and being totally shameless I joined them for lunch. Unfortunately I didn't have much time (had to be back at Guild booth by 2:30pm) and the restaurant was too full, so I ended up not eating at all.

Went back to Guild booth (a bit late) and Kenny showed me what I had to do. Basically just sell stuff, mark on a paper what I was selling, put the money in the write place and that was it. Not hard. I'm pretty sure I did not mess up.

At first who stayed at the booth with me was Greg Aronowitz. Now, on Thursday I didn't know who Greg was, and Kenny only told me "You'll find out tomorrow...", so I'll talk more about him when I talk about the Guild panel... Later Kenny came back and Greg left for a while. Also at the booth was Jamie Chambers, which I had met on Tuesday, but only really talked to him on Thursday. I knew Jamie by name, but never really knew any of his works... Jamie is such a awesome guy! He's one of those people that you meet and like instantaneously. =)

So anyway, working at the booth was tons of fun! SO many people stopped by and had never heard of the show! It was so cool to talk about it and see people getting interested about it! Also meeting other fans of the show! Very cool!

Now, here's the big fangirl moment of Thursday...

There was I working at the booth, Kenny was back too... And then Michele Boyd arrives!! Since the first time Michele stopped by Guild chat I was like "Michele is SO cool!", and following her on Twitter after that... she kept raising the bar on coolness... so I was excited about meeting her (as I was for the rest of the cast, but I think that it was different when meeting the whole cast at the signing and meeting one of the cast alone... can't quite explain, but it's different). So anyway, she arrives and starts talking with Kenny and someone else who was there, I can't remember who... I kept looking their way and then I whispered to Kenny "Introduce me!!!"... so Kenny goes "Michele, this is Dani...", and Michele goes "I know you!"... and I go (in my mind) "SQUEEE". I don't really remember what I said. So anyway, Michele sat there at the booth for a bit, and OMG, she's awesome. I know I'm using awesome a lot, but really... these people are awesome. Michele is SO sweet, so nice to talk to, just a personification of coolness and awesomeness.

Also during my booth time I saw Mark Sheppard walking by...

Me: "Is that Mark Sheppard????"
Jamie: "What?"
Me: "Is that Mark Sheppard??? Who just walked by??"
Jamie: "Where?... Oh yeah, it's him!"
Me: *trying to decide if I can ask to leave the booth and run after Mark Sheppard* / *decides I was going to do that*
Me: "Can I go there really fast....?"
Jamie (or might have been Kenny): "Yeah..."

*runs after Mark Sheppard*

I stopped him, asked for a pic. Which was a bit out of touch, I see now... I mean... he was walking with his son... must be annoying to be stopped all the time when trying to see the Con. But anyway, he took a pic with me and I went back to the booth with the silly "I just took a pic with Badger" smile on my face.

After that back to the booth, and that's what I did until the end of the Con day, except for one time when I left the booth really quick to go look for something very specific I wanted to buy... Now, I only went to look for this one thing, which is irrelevant cause I didn't find anyway, so I only had $20 in my pocket. Left all my stuff (except for my camera) in the booth. When I didn't find what I was looking for, I looked for the emptiest hall to make my way back to Guild booth. To my surprise I suddenly see this booth with a bunch of people around it... and who was there??? Adam HERO OF CANTON Baldwin!!! Jayne Cobb was there! And I wasn't wearing my Jayne's hat!!! Oh, and Edward James Olmos, James Callis and Michael Hogan were there too. But I had only eyes for Adam. Anyway, Adam was about to leave... I went to talk to him. Asked how long he'd be there (I wanted to go to the booth and get my Firefly stuff so he could signed... and get my Jayne's hat), he said he was just leaving, but that he'd be there on Friday. I panic for a bit. Cause I knew Friday I'd have no time to go back there... so I told him that... and I asked if I could take a pic with him before he left. And he did. Now... only AFTER that I saw that on this booth, you had to pay $10 for a pic with the booth guests. But since he was already leaving, his pics and stuff were all in a box... he took the pic for free for me! And I only found this out later, or I'd have thanked him even more. He was really great and I may have embarrassed myself a bit. I was very nervous. But I got a pic with Adam Baldwin, so... that's what I'm gonna remember from it, instead of my embarrassment. =P

After Adam left and I could think again, I noticed the you-have-to-pay-for-pics-and-autographs thing... And holy crap, it was expensive to take a pic with Edward James Olmos! Like... 2 signed pics and one pic with him was $110!!! I mean, he's fraking Adama, but... no, thanks. I did had a few words with him and he seems very nice too.

Also at the booth were James Callis (Baltar from BSG) and Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh from BSG). Now, I'll be very honest... neither of them were on my top favorites from BSG. I mean, they are both brilliant actors, but not ones that I'd REALLY geek out about it. BUT, I did have $20 in my pocket and I thought... "Ok... $10 for a pic with each... it'll be a cool pic...". So got a pic with James Callis first, then Michael Hogan. Which turned out to be a great idea, cause I was amazed with how nice Michael Hogan is! I know that they are supposed to be nice to the people paying to take a pic with them, but still... Michael Hogan was so sweet! When I told him I came from Brazil he looked quite excited about it, asking how was the trip, and if I was enjoying the Con... if it was worth the long trip... After we took the pic we asked to see how it turned out, and said he'd take another one if it wasn't good enough... I can't quite describe it, but it was one of the things that I wasn't expecting to happen at the Con and it was a lovely surprise. And for that I'm extra excited that he's gonna be a guest in Dollhouse!

After that I went back to the Guild booth. We met there everyday when the exhibit hall was about to close so we could meet with Jenni and go eat something and/or go home. Since we had the Xbox party that day, we needed to find a place to rest until the party, and then came to the rescue the awesome Kim Evey, who let us (me, Jenni, Sam, Eva and Nas) hang out at her hotel room to kill some time until the party. There was this funny and weird thing that I was close to the door and had to constantly open it to confused Guild cast members looking for Kim (she went to a room next door to organize stuff), but there's not much to talk about it, just that it was kinda funny... "Hey, Kim is next door..." *watches them look inside and see this bunch of people sitting on the beds and floor...* =P

After resting there for a while we went back to Jenni's car to leave our bags, and then the party... It was great! Lots of fun!

Soon after we arrived there we were already hanging out with tons of guildies, chatting with Vince (Bladezz), Jamie Chambers, Kim... checking out the games Xbox had there for us to play (I didn't play any games though...)... It was fun!

The rest of the night went basically like this: Chatting with guildies and forcing Kenny to introduce us to Guild cast (even though we had seen them before..) and asking for pics with them (Jeff, Robin, Amy...). Kenny was our link to the cast, hehe. And he even introduced us to Maurissa Tancharoen (Dr. Horrible / Dollhouse writer)!!! And Jed Whedon was there too! But we didn't want to bother Jed... He's a quieter person... But anyway, Maurissa is very sweet! =)

I can't possible describe everything during the party, so I'll just go to the things that I most remember about it (apart from the stuff I mentioned already):

- Felicia: We arrived there and she was giving interviews. She had to go earlier to the party to give interviews! She was kinda the host, so of course she had to go talk to everybody and stuff.. Work, work, work! Even during a party! And still she found time to go talk to us and take pictures! She was amazingly sweet as always, asked me if I was having fun and told me she liked the book I gave her (I didn't mention that before, but I gave Felicia a book with pictures from Brazil... I'm SO glad she liked it!). I was less nervous talking to her there, but somehow I manage to get stuck with simple english words every time I talked to her... She left the party earlier to get some rest, so we didn't see her that much after this.

- Michele: Now, as described above, I'm also Michele's fangirl... And HOW CAN I NOT? She arrived a bit later than everyone else, and at that point we weren't in such a big group anymore (some guildies were playing games, others sitting in different areas of the party...). I went with Edgar to ask Michele for a pic. Took Edgar's pic with her first, and then went to get mine... and I said... "Michele is too tall!!" (cause well, she is... and I'm too short...). And what does Michele do???? She kneels! On the floor! And leaves me incredibly embarrassed (but in a good way... if there's such a thing). I was like "OMG, you don't have to do that!!", and she replied saying it was no problem at all and other sweet things, cause she's awesome like that, and we took the picture. And then she stood up and we took another "normal" picture. So yeah... again... How can I not be a fangirl about Michele when she's so awesome like that???

- Sandeep's birthday: It was Sandeep's birthday... I gave him a Jayne's hat as a gift (not sure he remembers it though... he was... well... distracted). I have no idea what I was doing, but I missed the time when they got the cake for him... Anyway.

- Jeff playing Left4Dead: I can't really describe this... but it was HILARIOUS. Poor Nas was literally Left 4 Dead...

- Sean Becker: As stated before, he is awesome. Got a chance to chat more with Sean at the party and I can go on forever on his awesomeness... And we had matching shirts!!! Also, for some reason him and his Conquest co-host Jared Hoy, another great guy, liked to high-five me whenever we walked pass each other. So here's an online high-five for Sean and Jared! o/

- Jenni: Now, I'll go back on Jenni (and the other guildies too) for the last post, but let me just say that seeing Jenni rockin' the Jayne's hat I gave her with a very pretty dress at the party was all kind of awesome. =) [ps: I have very few Jenni pics! =( ]

That's basically it for the party... Had tons of fun. We were one of the last ones to leave... Then me, Eva, and Sam gave Nas a ride (Jenni stayed at Felicia's room this night... Felicia needed Jenni's help really early on Friday). This car ride shall never be mentioned in details. So I won't. We took Nas to his far far away hotel, and then headed back to Jenni's house. The end of Thursday.

Now, this was supposed to be a Thursday/Friday post... but it's too long (again) already, so that's it for now. Will work on Friday blog and post it later. Thank you for reading my rambling again.

So... Almost 1 week since I got back home... I'm gonna try to write my Comic Con post now. It's gonna be VERY long. I apologize for that.

First of all, let me say that I'm sorry this blog was a big fail. I had an idea of how intense Comic Con would be, but I thought we'd still have time to post more stuff. Turns out we didn't. And when we did have time, those were the few hours dedicated to sleep.

But, better late than never, I guess, so I'm gonna try to put into words the awesomeness that was San Diego Comic Con 2009.

Tuesday:

I left home Monday July 20th, around 4pm (local time ... noon San Diego time), and after 1 bus, 3 flights and lots of waiting in airports, I got to San Diego on Tuesday July 21st, around 7pm (SD time). Waiting for me at the airport were the guildies Jenni, Nathan and Eva, plus Sam (Jenni's friend).

Sam was hungry (as I learned later, Sam is always hungry =P), so we went straight to the downtown to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at this Irish Pub (if you know me you know that "Irish" is a word that instantaneously makes me happy, so... great start). I had this DELICIOUS Garlic Fries... it was great. Later we were joined by guildies Nas and Matt! And Nas arrived with this HUGE bag full of Kit Kats for me! Now... here's a quick background story for those who don't know:

I LOVE Kit Kats. When I lived in Ireland I used to have 1 kit kat everyday in my break from work and I truly miss Kit Kats (we don't have it here in Brazil). I told this many many times in Guild chat, so guildies promised to get me Kit Kats! So yeah... bag full of Kit Kats = Dani happy.

After a while we crossed the street and met guildie Edgar and Jamie Chambers (Guild boothmate, writer of RPG books... he gets paid to be a geek, as he said himself...) in another restaurant. And later we were joined by another guildie, Lydia (who came all the way from Germany!!!).

I was VERY tired on Tuesday, but still I had a great time and it was SO nice to meet everyone in person! I'll talk more about that later, but I have to say that the first impression couldn't have been better. It was only the first day, Comic Con hadn't even started and I was LOVING it already!

We (Me, Jenni, Eva and Sam) then went to Jenni's house (cause Jenni is awesome and let us stay at her house) and I slept. And damn I needed to sleep. And little random thing... Jenni's bed is VERY relaxing. (Don't even go there, you dirty mind people...) Like 5 stars hotel quality.

So we go to...

...Wednesday

Preview night!!! Yey! But before we get to that...

I woke up, went downstairs and found Jenni making pancakes (See? Great bed, pancakes in the morning... 5 stars hotel, people!). We were soon joined by Jenni's friend Michele, and don't get me wrong... Jenni was doing a fine job with the pancakes, but Michele seems to master it. Then Eva and Sam joined us and we had breakfast. I don't usually have breakfast, or eat pancakes (not really popular here), but I did there and it was really good. =)

After that Jenni had to leave (she had to be at the Convention center earlier to set up the booth with Jamie), and we stayed just chilling and taking naps. Around 2pm we left cause we needed to get our badges, and we also had to take some chairs and deliver to Jenni.

Now here's the first "Dani, control yourself moment": We get there and call Jenni, she says she's at the door waiting for us to give her the chairs. So when we meet Jenni... who's there with her? Felicia Day herself!

Now... I know... Felicia is a normal person. Like you and me. Ok, more talented than you and me (well, at least more than me), but still a normal person. A geek like us... And she chats with us on Guild chat and reply to ours tweets and stuff. Still, you all know I'm a fangirl. There's no point on hiding it. So yeah, I might have gone to a "OMFG, there's Felicia! Ok, I thought I'd only see her later today... Ok, control yourself Dani! No staring! And try not to sweat!" moment. BUT, I'm very proud to say that I TOTALLY kept it cool! Really. I was VERY impressed with myself! And I'm pretty sure no one noticed that I was, in fact, having a bit of tachycardia at that time. And I realized I just ruined it telling this here, but whatever.

So, ok, back to the point... there was Felicia! She was taking pictures with people because she obviously is a rockstar at Comic Con, but then she came up to us and said: "How nice to meet you in person!". And I thought "Yep. She is in fact as sweet in person as she is online!". There was no time to chat, Jenni and Felicia had to go back to setting up the booth, and me, Eva and Sam had to get our badges. So they went inside, and we went to the badges line. And that's the little story of how I met Felicia Day. =)

(If you are reading this and laughing and thinking I'm silly... stop now. It'll only get worse. Also, FRAK YOU! I'm a fangirl... and proud of it.)

Ok, so... After that we got our badges, I don't quite remember what we did, but I think we met with Nas and went to eat something... pizza, I think? Might have been another day... And later we went back to the Convention center and got into the line to get in at 6pm.

When we were about to get in (we go upstairs, the line goes around the whole building, then downstairs and then we get into the exhibit hall) I saw Kim Evey (Guild producer) walking in with heavy boxes, so we stopped to help her. And here's the second fangirl moment for which I ask you not to laugh (or at least don't tell me you did):

I think I said: "Hi Kim! I'm Dani..." and I think she said: "I know who you are!" (or maybe I imagined that... could have happened...) but anyway. We volunteered to help her with the boxes, which was cool cause our first entrance into Comic Con was following Kim straight to the Guild booth (which couldn't be a better entrance for me... I mean, the whole reason I even went to the Con was because of The Guild).

After the boxes (Nas did most of the hard work... we were more like moral support... =P) I went to Guild signing line. I got my Season 2 dvd signed by the main cast and also got my Dr. Horrible dvd signed by Felicia! I had a shirt written "I came all the way from Brazil to take a picture with Felicia Day", but since already mentioned, I was nervous... so I forgot to show her the shirt at first. She saw it later though and I got my pic! =P

While at the signing line I met other guildies like Kenny and others... My mind is a little fuzzy about preview night, so I'm not quite sure who I saw Wednesday.

After that I went to walk around the booths with Nas. I wanted to go to the California Browncoats booth, and since it was quite far from Guild booth, we went in that direction and looking and other booths along the way.

Apparently I missed the big mess that was Guild signing. Too many people in the line. Not a lot of space near the booth. But with the help of awesome Guildies they were able to survive it. =)

So, California Browncoats booth... I've seen pics of that booth from preview Comic Cons, and going there was a big thing in my to-do before dying list. And the booth is as shiny as I thought. Sadly I did not hang around the Browcoats booth (or the Browncoats) as much as I'd like to during the whole Con, but it was still great to see them there, and even recognize some awesome Browcoats like Danregal and TheOneTrueB!X!

Danregal, btw, has a VERY impressive memory. One year before, after SDCC 2008, I posted a comment on one of his pics. And he remembered that!!!

So yeah, bought some stuff at the Browncoats booth and walked back to Guild booth, stopping in many other booths along the way.

Back at Guild booth I met Fernie (Wade / Stunt guy from The Guild) and Tara (Dena, from The Guild). And they are both awesome! And Dena's Mom!!! AWESOME!!! Got them to sign my dvd too... =)

After the Preview Night was over a bunch of us went to have dinner. Me, Jenni, Stuart (Jenni's boyfriend), Eva, Nas, Kenny, Fernie, Ethan (Guild intern) and Stuart's friends. It was a great dinner (I had Garlic fries again.... not as good as the ones from the Irish pub though. Still good.), and we were later joined by Mr. Sean Becker (Or at least the person people seem to think it's Sean Becker...).

Now, to make this easier to read and understand, I'll now refer to this person as Sean Becker. Even though I AM SEAN BECKER. But it'd be confusing... so yeah... I'll refer to him as Sean Becker. And here's my fangirl moment #3:

Sean arrives... I don't even give him time to seat and I say: "Sean Becker!! I have something for you..." and he goes: "Oh! Is it what I'm thinking?". And it was. Now... pause for another background story:

Last year (I'd say around November, December...) Sean Becker joins Guild chat, and I can't exactly remember how it started, but let's say we doubted that he was, in fact, the real Sean Becker, and after that many of us started to claim that he was a fake Sean Becker, and people started to say "I am Sean Becker!". Now, I am the real Sean Becker, and I wasn't too happy with people finding out about the fake dude I hired to be me online... but ok.

So, this Sean Becker (again, I'm back to referring to him as Sean Becker, to make this simpler) says something like "You know what would be cool?? A t-shirt that says I AM SEAN BECKER! Or even better... one that it is misspelled... like... I AM TOM BECKER". And so it started. I made the t-shirt design that day, not even knowing I was going to Comic Con back then. Later when I was thinking of going Sean promised that if I made the t-shirt he'd take a pic with me wearing it... so that's what originated THIS.

So yes. Sean Becker... what a great guy!! And he gave me a button button! So yeah, I <3 Sean Becker, even if he's a fake and I AM SEAN BECKER.

So that was Wednesday. LOTS of fun. Fangirl moments. Great dinner.

Oh, and I forgot to say my first impression of the Con itself...
I've been watching youtube videos and seeing Comic Con pics for years. Since I became a Buffy fan, I believe (9 years ago). So I had an idea of how it was like. I knew it was huge. And it is. It's HUGE. It's mad. And I'm not usually a crowd person, but this crowd... being there at San Diego Comic Con... it felt awesome. It felt like I belong to this crowd. This crowd that stopped me to say "Hey, nice Jayne's hat!". Felt like I was right... this was something I had to do at least once in my life, and it was even better than I expected.

So, this thing is WAY too long already... more than I anticipated, so I'll split this up. 2 days in each post. I might post the Thursday/Friday post today too... if I don't get too sleepy. I don't know.

If you read all of this, I applaud you. It's a lot of rambling. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but it's a lot to take in... it's a lot to try to organize in my mind chronologically and write it down.

I'll also talk more about the people... Jenni, Eva, Sam, Nas, Kenny, Stuart, Edgar, Nathan, Matt, Lydia... and many others... everyone I met there... there's so much to talk about them... but I'll probably leave that for the last post.

Anyway, that's it for now. More to come!

Monday - Prepwork
Chris (WoW) and I went to rent our trip car (my car has no AC and 1k miles over a week would make it sad) and were going to get a 2010 Mazda 3, but the guy ran over a tire and tied on the damaged parts with zip ties. So we got a free upgrade to a Toyota Prius, which, while tight, got good mileage.

Met up with Traci (WoW)'s mom for dinner, hit the timeshare and unpacked. Met up with Eva Chan (The Guild) who needed a bed for one night and crashed.

Tuesday - Free Time
Wandered San Diego with Eva, had sushi like we promised, it was nice to have a day to just relax.

Picked up Daniela Figueiredo (The Guild) from the airport with Jenni Powell (The Guild) and met Sam Proof (Jenni Powell). Had a delicious dinner at The Field and then drinks across the street at the Marble Room.

There we met up with the webmaster Edgar Garcia (The Guild). It was an international meeting of Guildies as Lydia (Germany), Dani (Brazil), Eva (Canada), Naseeb (also Canada), and Matt (Illinois is like another country, right?) Edgar (also IL) mingled with the Californians.

Wednesday - Preview Night!
Went shopping in the exhibition room, got my The Guild autographs and called it early since it got out at 9.

Thursday - Comic-Con Day 1
Bit more shopping and collected tickets for various signings the following day.

I wasn't going to originally but I got talked into doing The Guild's scavenger hunt and I am glad I did (Thanks all. :) )Doing so got me into The Guild's VIP and X-Box party where I got to hang out with The Guild's cast and got to meet Maurissa Tancharoen. (She was with Jed Whedon but he was busy talking to other people.) Ray Park made an appearance but I was too dumbfounded and boozed (OPEN BAR) at that point to even say 'hi.' (Star Wars' 'Darth Maul', X-Men's 'Toad', as well as the upcoming G.I. Joe's 'Snake Eyes')

Friday - Comic-Con Day 2
Woke up early to fight for Coraline signing tickets, which became a fiasco. Convention Center staff had to yell at the giant crowd for half an hour to keep moving, so we walked in circles. When the random drawing happened the event planner ruined the randomness by giving tickets out to people for different reasons. While random reasons, it was still an unfair way to speed up something that was supposedly plain luck. Instead he gave them out to people who were in costume, etc.

This really upset Chris, Traci, and I (all of us in line for myself) so Chris had some strong words with the event runner afterward, and after some time and uncomfortable raised voices, eventually Chris got him to give out an extra bracelet, which he gave to me. (Thanks again Chris!) After getting the beyond-last bracelet for the signing I went to pick up the last Coraline Blu-Ray (which Traci hunted down by calling a bazillion stores) and the last copy of Coraline at Borders. My luck was amazing that morning, I must say.

12:30 rolled around to get my autographs from the scheduled talent: Neil Gaiman (Book Author), Keith David (Voice of The Cat), Henry Selick (Production Designer).  When who shows up to sign as well? The beautiful Teri Hatcher (Various voices, most notably both mother's). I was so nervous when I got to Neil Gaiman I said, "I love everything." What I meant to say was I loved all his work, but I was too flabbergasted. He politely responded with, "I love everything, too."

I had lunch with Chris and Traci, our only restaraunt meal the entire trip, and it was nice to just sit and talk. Afterwards we returned to the center so I could get in line for the Dollhouse signing.

To make a long story short the gigantic 3 hour line was so poorly organized by Fox that convention center employees had to help and block off two aisles for us. Then the talent arrived: Joss Whedon (Executive Producer, Writer), Eliza Dushku (Executive Producer, Lead Actress 'Echo'), Fran Kranz (Actor ' 'Topher'), Dichen Lachman (Actress 'Sierra'). The line collapsed into a huge pushing match for the one entrance as time began to run short. I thought I'd never get in as the clock hit 6:55. As a consolation for those who were rushed towards the end Enver Gjokaj (Actor, 'Victor') showed up and we were able to get his autograph as well.

So I was rushed by most of the talent but when I got to Joss I asked him to sign my Ship's Papers (http://tinyurl.com/nmzkda). Eliza stopped and asked, "Your what?" and they both kind of stared at them. I think Eliza was interested and Joss wanted to make sure he wasn't signing some kind of contract.

Afterwards I met up with Preston Stelford (Comic-Con 2007) someone I had met and bought dinner for two years ago. He remembered (I had forgotten) and bought me dinner. It was nice to hook up and catch up on a few things. :)

Saturday - Comic-Con Day 3
Hunted down Jason Palmer to buy shirts, lost the raffle for Dr. Horrible signing. Pretty relaxed day.

Dinner with Chris, Traci, Mathew Kelley (WoW), it was nice to have a rooftop grill and deck to relax on. :)

Sunday - Comic-Con Day 4
Grabbed some more autos from The Guild and wandered the halls a little bit, nothing special planned, I helped the CA Browncoats and attended their panel and I'm glad I did.

Nathan Fillion showed up and stole the show, he spoke for about half an hour (All on YouTube if you like) and then took some group photos. Then he went downstairs and did a signing, I got his name added to my Serenity 'Ship's Papers' (Her pink slips and other 'Official Papers')

After that it was a nice relaxed evening and packing to head home. :)

Overall
It was probably the most enjoyable con I have been to thus far (3 'San Diego Comic Con's, 2 'WonderCon's, and 'Serenity Salute'). I was able to meet up with a lot of people I never thought I would, hang out at The Guild VIP party, and collect auto's (including the beloved Joss Whedon one).

What also really helped was having a good time outside of the convention, the dinners and drives were all very enjoyable and I look forward to going again next year.