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Good morning, Cafe! I am in the Metra station, awaiting my train. Who hearts the pedway? I do!

(Technically I'm now at McCormick Place. Didn't get to post before the train came.)

Yesterday was a combiation of awesome and surreal. I mostly wandered the show floor and looked at all the vendors and artists, and grabbed swag from the big booths. In the afternoon I went to a couple of panels, which were at times interesting and at others somewhat predictable. The first one, Storytelling In Comics, was spectacularly good -- mostly about using art to tell stories, but with a lot of insights into writing as well, and also kind of a look at how artists view writers. I always sort of assumed that most people were double-threats, writer-artists who could just draw the stories they wanted to tell, but the audience seemed to be mainly composed of artists who wanted someone else to sort out the story. I still struggle sometimes to remember that not everyone is a) adept at or b) interested in writing the story, and that my abilities come from obsessive hard work that is nevertheless built on a foundation of innate ability.

It's sort of nice to know that I would have something to contribute, should I find myself in the position to do so.

The second panel was part of an academic track on comics, their context in history, and their interaction with our culture and society. Which would have been awesome, but it was sort of the...least effective kind of academia, a lot of students and scholars giving presentations to each other in the hopes it will look good on a resume. I originally wrote the Introvert's Guide To Presenting because I saw a lot of this in academia and while I hate presenting, I can recognise unskilled from dynamic. It was, as I mentioned to some people, rather like hearing a Wikipedia article read aloud. Nothing wrong with Wikipedia, I really like it, but I don't need it presented to me in a monotone.

So I snuck out of that one and ran off to kibbitz in Artist's Alley.

For dinner, after the con closed, I met up with some friends and we went out for DESOLATE DIM SUM. We got there about an hour before the place closed and while it was AMAZING food, we were also the only people in the entire restaurant. We did get excellent service, but it felt a bit apocalyptic. Still, a good time.

And then I came home and crashed into bed and dreamed about action figures. Which reminds me...

( Per request, let's see that $7 Iron Man )

Anyway. Today is all about panels, and trying to make sure I get into the panels I want to see.

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Oh...THERE'S Waldo.

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Okay that was at once the funniest and saddest thing to happen to me in weeks, possibly months.

I had a great day at the convention -- saw some panels, wandered around, hung out, watched Batman and Superman go through the pizza line together -- and at the end of the day I went to nerd speed dating, which I signed up for because LOL, nerd speed dating. This is speed dating made up entirely of people who voluntarily attended a comic book convention.

And I struck out.

The way speed dating works is that everyone has a number, and you introduce yourself by your number, no names involved. At the end, after speed-meeting about two dozen people for 3 minutes each, you find the sheets with the numbers of the people you were interested in and write down your contact info on their number sheet. I met about half a dozen people I thought were interesting, one I really hit it off with, and at least half a dozen people who were way less socially adept than I am (I also got to know the guys on either side of me, one of whom was the most towering douche I have ever encountered).

So I wrote down my contact info on some papers and then went to collect mine, and I had zero contact infos. I had a blank sheet of paper.

Did I have something on my face? Was it the face on my face?

I'm going with the theory that people didn't find me nerdy enough, because the alternative is that I can't get a date at NERD SPEED DATING and thus am summarily un-dateable.

In all honesty, I did it for the lulz. I didn't exactly have hopes or aspirations involved -- I've reached a point where I'm pretty sure I'm not the kind of person who can sustain a long-term relationship, possibly even a short-term one -- so I'm cool with it. It's tragic, but in a way only I can be tragic, which makes it hilarious.

Anyway, the guy who runs it is really cool -- he does little stand-up routines during breaks -- and I can tell he works hard to make sure that nobody gets creeped on or made uncomfortable. So a shout-out to Scifi Speed Dating for making my utter social failure enjoyable, at least. :D