Comic Con 2008 Roundup

Although 2 more days remain of Comic Con 2008, it is officially over for me. If you haven't seen my photos (or if you have), view them and read the description of the album. In short, I suffered a freak accident and ended up screwing up my lower back. This made it extremely challenging for me to be on my feet for an extended period of time. What I didn't mention in the album description was that Basti kept me home too - he has been sick since Wednesday with fevers ranging from 102 - 103 F and so we ended up taking him to the doctor today. I couldn't enjoy myself at the con knowing that one of my kids wasn't feeling well so I ended up passing on my Friday badge to a good friend.

Aside from being in physical pain most of the day yesterday and part of the day today, all of the things that I had planned to do at the Convention were ruined by the sheer number of people. I had planned on going to some of the breakout sessions to take photos of the celebrities and to listen in on some of the upcoming news but found out that other convention-goers had found ways to camp out the night before to be able to get good seats.

Then there were the convention-goers that were no better than zombies. They roamed around pointlessly, bumping into people, and sometimes even pushing people. If there's anything that I can't stand, it's a lack of civility and if anything, Hollywood's presence has brought that to an event that was once sacred to me.

The convention itself was nothing new. The booths weren't showing anything new and the swag bags were recycled leftovers from last year. The only thing new were the movies for this year and for next year but... as I mentioned, it was next to impossible to get a great seat at the sessions that talked about these upcoming shows. So the decision to end Comic Con came easy for me...

Not all was lost though. On the way home, I ended up giving my father-in-law whom I met up with, an abbreviated background on comics and video games. Since I hadn't eaten, we stopped by a Hawaiian barbecue restaurant and I bought lunch. While I was waiting for my food, I went to Gamestop that was next door. Since one of the games that I had told my father-in-law about was Legend of Zelda, I asked if Gamestop had any Nintendo Wii's in stock. They had one... It was a sign and I took it.

When we got home, the kids (and Raissa) flipped out when the saw the Wii so I devoured my food and quickly hooked up the console to the plasma TV in the living room and we started to play... The unit was defective. It wouldn't load any discs. I got on the phone with Nintendo and they agreed to send me a replacement unit within 3 - 4 business days. In the meantime, the kids figured out how much fun it was to create avatars called Mii's so they ended up making Miis of yous (you guys that they know) on the Wii. Confused? Mii too! When I looked at the Wii, there had made so many Mii's with strikingly close similarities to the actual people that they based the Mii's on.

So until we get the replacement Wii, the kids are having a great time making digital avatars for friends and relatives and although I was disappointed this year, my excitement will continue because of the comic-based movies that are up and coming... Besides, there's always Comic Con 2009.