San Diego Comic Con adventures - 2005

Some of you might have wondered if I'd disappeared.
Indeed, to some (most) I may have, but for a short while only.

I had gone to the San Diego Comic Con International for about a week. And what did I get upon my return? Ill. Nice.

What was once a comic book geek-fest, is now the world's largest comic / film / literary / fine arts / pop-culture convention. I've been attending it for 15 years now, and just gets bigger and better. What makes this trip more worthwhile is the group of people I go with.

This year was a good batch of friends for sure. Some are even on MySpace. Of course, when you get any number of people crammed into a hotel room - to keep costs lower - you find out quickly about everyone's quirks, habits, and opinions. But, that's what keeps it all interesting.

What was I doing there? Different things, mostly networking. I went down with a couple of friends, and several models to help promote a T-shirt company named Dirty Little Tees. The girls dressed up in the hottie-wear and walked around the (almost 1/8 mile long) convention center filled with what seemed to be around 150,000 people, getting everyone to come to the booth and spend money.

Why girls? Simple. Never underestimate the financial power of a horny 14-year-old boy with allowance money in his pocket... especially when a pretty girl smiles at him.

The booth aside, we all networked with several companies, artists, and film-makers for future possible jobs. I apparently had earned a friendly reputation with the catch-phrase "Hey folks, it's that guy with all the girls! Give him a big hand and follow him around." Well, I could think of worse things said in passing.

The convention itself was fun, albeit a bit mellower than usual.

So... the Good News / Bad News portion of my trip...

Positives -
* Stayed at Embassy Suites - 2 room suites with all the amenities (kitchenette, fridge, microwave, 3 beds, and more). Free breakfasts cooked to order, and all the booze you can drink (FREE!) during a 2-hour happy hour.
* Staying in a suite with a couple of friends, and a variety of models. Yeah, don't that suck. HA HA!! OK, granted, most had serious boyfriends... but a guy can embellish on the settings, can't he?
* Meeting more celebs and fantastically creative, artistic, and ambitious people in one area than one could imagine.
* Getting paid to be there. (Always nice, even if it wasn't much.)

Negatives -
* Apparently I got sick with a sore throat from the second day I got there. I also don't usually sleep much, and even less during this trip... so the equivalence was almost 4 days with no sleep, on a potential illness brewing.
* Hearing flapping noises from the front tire on the way home (with a 500 mile drive coming up) - luckily only one mile away from home. Finding out that my front tire was about to blow. Took that bad boy off immediately.
* Adventure-Man Phil, puts on the donut spare tire and drives back almost 500 miles. But wait... this is the second time that I have driven that distance on the same donut tire (this happened 2 years ago also). AND I was doing about 70 - 80 mph (yeah, yeah, I'm a bit nuts).
* Upon getting home, and feeling like absolute crap, finding out that I have pharyngitis and possible strep throat (and somehow no one else got sick). So, I've been back for a few days, feeling like crap, wishing I would feel better so that I can go through my bags of new stuff, and contact information.

Alrighty... there was the extended version of my last couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more tales later.

Well here's a good "Howdy Do" to me in the morning...

This is a Yahoo message that I got this morning from a known MySpacer friend of mine.

xte****:
Good Morning Sunshineeeeeeeeeeee lol
dammit, i stepped in cat shit! lol

That was the entire message.

Always good information to share with someone.
It certainly inspired me to have a wonderful and productive day.
On the other hand... I wish that I had slept more than two hours.
I'm tired and bitchy... but, amused none the less.

Art imitates life - My oral surgery... bloody hell!! I'm going to miss an "Angel" episode!

Another chapter in the Aventurous Life of Phil - April 2005:
The trip to the Dentist ending in a game of Slice & Dice -

On Monday, April 25th, I went to my dentist to finish the job of putting a crown in (actually two, apparently).

Simple enough, one might think (unless your squeamish).
But no, as she is poking and prodding around in my food-hole, she realizes that I have issues. No, not as in personal mental issues, but something more insidious (that means serious). I need some serious surgery, and, like, now! Before any infections can set in.

Presto! I am scheduled for Wednesday, April 27th - two days later.
No time like the present, they say.

Wednesday comes around, and I am watching an episode of "Angel" on TNT, the great drama re-run network.
"Angel" for those of you uninitiated, is about a vampire of the same name... who has a soul. Get it? Good.

This episode concerns a woman who wants to become like him. In a fit of outrage, Angel forces her to drink blood by pouring it down her throat. At this point, I have to leave to make my appointment time. (And if you know me, I'm almost never on time... except this time.)

I get to the dentist and it's wham-bam! Right down to it. I'm settled in, injected with foul-tasting anesthetic, and promptly started upon with the scalpel.

In no time, I am suddenly reliving the very scene I just left from "Angel".
I am now forced to drink an onslaught of blood... my own... right down my throat! Perhaps the "Angel" episode was a sick look into what was about to happen to me. Thrilling, to say the least.

But wait... there's more... Sensing my twitchy behavior within my chair, my dentist informs me, very non-chalantly, that, "There is nothing in your mouth that you cannot swallow. So go ahead."

At this point a thought came to mind, followed later by another...
1) What if I do not WANT to swallow the viscous red liquid flowing freely down into my gullet?
2) What about the surgical tools jammed into my yap? Are THEY OK to swallow? Technically, she did mention that anything within the confines of my jaws was "OK to swallow".

There is a further thought to this situation... The idea of someone suggesting that whatever is "in your mouth is OK to swallow", seems to be something that mostly guys are famous for saying to unsuspecting girls. Usually in high school, before common sense sets in.

Was this my doctor's way of getting back at me for being a male? Forcing me to swallow something, that was created by my own body, but that neither taste, nor texture, nor desire made me wish to do so. Interesting theorems. Yes, some of you do worry that I over-think too much. Perhaps I do. I like it. You should too. Someone has to ponder these odd problems out. Stay tuned for further adventures...

I've been robbed!! But... in a good way??

My life is always interesting. Even when bad, negative things happen to me... it almost always ends up for a good reason, or a good outcome.

Last night, I was shopping for groceries at Safeway.
I put my carry-along with my wallet and everything up on the roof of my car... and promptly forget about it as I leave the premises. Not until noon today do I realize that, "SHIT! My wallet is gone!"

Of course no one has turned it into Safeway's management - which is fine as there was no money in it. BUT... I hated to lose business contact phone numbers (not too many).

I call my bank first to let them know that my bank Debit / Credit card was lost and supposedly stolen. I explain very quickly, but very carefully, that ALL my forms of ID were in there - Driver's license, my ID, bank card, passport, medical card, and everything... Gone!!

The bank guy on the phone says, "Can I have your bank card number please?"
"NO!!" I tell him... "But you can call the guy who stole it and ask HIM."

He then asks me for my other information and we continue.

He looks up my information and asks me when I made my last bank transaction. I told him... last night at the Safeway store. And that I made a deposit the day before for $65.

He thinks for minute... then comes the funny part...
He tells me that I now have a Credit of $114. in my bank.

I said, "Do you mean someone STOLE $114. from my account."
He says, "No. Someone just put $114. INTO your account."
I then tell him... "In that case, I like this thief and want him to continue to use my card."
HA HA!!!

The bank guy takes me seriously and doesn't say anything else. I then remind him that I am calling to cancel my bank card and to get a new one. He doesn't seem to understand why.

I explain that I do not want someone ELSE shopping with my money.
He agrees.

He tells me that he will send my new bank card to my bank near me, and that I can pick it up this Friday.
Sounds good.

He then tells me, "You will need to bring 2 forms of ID with you."
I think for a moment and ask him, "Did you and I just have a conversation about what was stolen?"
He says, "Yes."
I said, "Then you will remember that I just told you ALL my IDs are stolen. Every one of them... all licenses and cards."
Bank guy thinks and asks, "Do you have a driver's license?"
Me, "NO!!"
Bank guy, "How about a birth certificate?"
Me, "NO!!!"
Bank guy, "Do you have any other forms of ID?"
I say, "What do you not understand about the words 'ALL MY IDS' are stolen?"
He then says, "OK, well then you can just go in and talk to the bank manager, and she can probably help you and give you your new bank card."

Argh! The stupidity of humankind.

---

An addendum to this story: It turned out that the bank dork on the phone (and yes, sitting in a chair in a far-away country), could not read the data correctly. It turned out to be a deposit that I had made myself, about a week previously, which for some reason posted to my account late. But bank dork read it as a brand new bank posting. Nice.

Mark Ryden's art kicks ass

A note for art fans...

If you haven't checked out the bizarre, disturbing, yet strangely captivating art of Mark Ryden...
do so immediately.

Awesome work. http://www.markryden.com