reasons i suck

I can not be trusted

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When City of Heroes was released… was it five years ago? (Hmm. Wikipedia says it’s four) I was very very close to buying it for myself. Very very close. I love superhero stories, and everything I heard about the game suggested they did away with most of the level-grinding I’d experienced with Dark Age of Camelot.

I decided against it, though, for one reason–a reason I love very much.

But here I am in Studio City in my friend’s apartment, having created a character on his account, and I played for hours last night. I was up until 3 am playing. And I dreamed about it, too. I woke before he and his girlfriend did and would have been back online finishing missions this morning if I knew the password for his account.

Yikes. I can not buy this thing.

I fly home tonight. It’s been too long since I was with my wife and son.

I leave San Diego today

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Today I will be taking the train out of San Diego back to Studio City. Yesterday’s signing went well–I even got to sign the poster!–and lunch with my editor and publicist went very nicely.

Yesterday was also the day my credit card forced its way out of my wallet and I spent some money down on the exhibitor floor. Nothing crazy–I certainly didn’t buy the 100 dollar lightsaber that changed color–but I did pick up some nice books at the Mysterious Galaxy booth and some magazines for my son. I also picked up the Call of Cthulhu movie (Yay!)

Famous people sighted yesterday (in chronological order): Joshua Jackson from FRINGE, Woody Harrelson from the upcoming ZOMBIELAND, Amanda Tapping from SANCTUARY and various STARGATE series, and Grant Imahara, one of the MYTHBUSTERS.

More importantly, I got a call from my wife yesterday–she’s back from her camping trip in the Olympic Peninsula, and called me here at the hotel. It’s been almost a week since I talked to her, and… yeah. I miss them both. I’ll be back in Seattle soon enough.

Missed the Lego Panel yesterday…

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The line was long, long, long. They were giving away free stuff, and it was a Star Wars-oriented panel, so that’s not surprising.

I made it to today’s Brick Journal panel, though, so that worked out okay. I have a bunch of photos of new/about to be released sets, some pics of old-time sets that were never released, including a Napoleonic War set and Prohibition-era gangster set.

I also bought three new sets to bring back with me.

Still not reading my f-list. At this point, I’m going to log off, read a while until my friends catch up to me here, then bolt out of the convention for the rest of the day. Maybe I’ll even (*gasp*) get some writing done.

eta: So far I’ve seen two actor-type celebrities (outside booths where they sign pix for a fee: One was Adam Baldwin being very guy with a lot crowd of admirers and the other was Matthew Gray Gubler in a wheelchair (with a brace on his knee) having his picture taken with fans.

eta, part 2: While I was waiting for my friends, Amanda Palmer sat at my table to get a couple things done before she rushed off to another event. She was fangirled a couple times, and I took a picture of her and a fan with the fan’s camera.

Just finished my panel and signing

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I did not puke, wet my pants with fear or soak through my shirt with flop sweat.

Actually, it went pretty well, considering. I didn’t manage to take my editor’s advice on the panel (which was “Be amusing, dammit”) but I didn’t stammer too much and I, you know, said things. Juliet Blackwell is a hero of the revolution for talking to me as though I was doing something completely normal–that really eased my nervousness. Everyone should go buy her new book.

Afterwards, I had a chance to chat briefly with Betsy Mitchell, my editor, as we walked to the signing. On the way, my buddy Jim came up behind us as said “Mr. Connolly! Mr. Connolly! Would you sign my girlfriend’s breasts?” Betsy laughed, thank Pikachu.

The signing went well, too. (It’s easy to get people to take free books, is all I’m sayin’.)

And the other authors were super-nice. I’m afraid I was a little nervous about the whole thing and didn’t talk all that well, but I survived.

Now I wander around the con until 1:30 when I go the the Lego panel I promised my son I’d attend.

Still not reading blogs and such.

Made it

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My flight got into Burbank safely, my buddy picked me up at baggage claim, and we went out for a nice breakfast.

Our waiter was named “Crud.”

Hello, L.A.!

Last week’s trip to the restaurant (with bonus furniture pix)

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We brought a camera to the Boat Street Cafe so we could take pictures of the food, but it looked so good we fell on it instantly. No pix for you of the food, but here’s the restaurant:

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I should have taken it facing the other way, so you can see the open air patio.

I had the lamb and my son ordered grilled octopus. Seven-years-old and he goes for the most adventurous food on the menu. He loved it, too. My boy.

Also, we have been talking for a long while about replacing our old dining table chairs. We got them when our upstairs neighbor died, and her sons–both in their sixties–unloaded gave us a bunch of her furniture rather than try to dispose of it. But the seats were torn, the padding hung out and some of the screws had stripped out of the wood.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to replace furniture when you don’t have a car, so we’ve been putting it off. Enter a multi-family garage sale up the road where my wife picked up six of these:

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I love my new chairs.

Much to do before I leave on my trip.

I eat

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Tonight, I’ll be meeting my family (wife, son, visiting sister-in-law) for dinner at my favorite restaurant. It’s provincial French, and very simple. Not too fancy, but delicious food.

I wish they’d put the Normandy Chicken back on the menu, though.

Should I mention that I had completely forgotten about it, and that my wife had to call me to remind me? No, better not.

Eeep!

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This is me, spamming your feeds and lists…

One of my supervisors at my day job offered me a chance to do a reading. Here at work.

Here.

At work.

I… erm… thanked her and declined. I’d just as soon do a pole dance.

God, I’m so fucking stupid

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Why do I have to post these things?  Christ. I’m such an idiot.

Good (but embarrassing) news

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I just received a two-month deadline extension for Man Bites World.  Frankly, I’m embarrassed that I need it and more than a little frustrated with my method of working.  For the last few weeks, I’ve had a powerful case of Other writers can do this, why can’t I? That’s still going on, but without the worry of missing a deadline.

Well, I did spend over two months of this year on revisions to the soon-to-be-retitled Everyone Loves Blue Dog.  My agent warned me to factor that in when calculating deadlines, but I had no idea I’d be stuck on it again for over two months!

At any rate, I head to SoCal in two weeks to Comic-Con and see friends–while there, I plan to steal extra time for book three.  Hopefully it will not only be finished, but good, too.  Hopefully part 2, I will never have to ask for this again.