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A few weeks ago I attended Rose City Comic Con. It was September 9-11. This was year 10 of the con. I’ve been every year except 1, and I was in Hawaii that year. I’ve been meaning to write about it, but life is busy.

It was great to be back in con mode again. I’m in better physical shape than I was last year. When I first arrived I was proud because I was able to walk from one end of the convention center to the other. I was very much out of breath at the end, but at least I did it. Small victories.

Instead of spending pretty much all day at the con, I was only there for a maybe 5 hours tops each day. I got to do most of what I wanted to and even got to rest at times. I saw panels with Levar Burton, Billy Dee Williams, Buffy ladies (Charisma Carpenter, Julie Benz, and Amber Benson), Walking Dead stars (Ross Marquand and Khary Payton), Star Trek Discovery stars (Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz), Kel Mitchell, Sylvester McCoy, Hobbits (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin), voice actors from Dragonball Z, and Giancarlo Esposito. I got to have my photo taken with Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Rainn Wilson, Levar Burton, Sean Astin, and Elijah Wood. I also got autographs from Wesley Chu and John Scalzi.

My biggest complaint about the con was the food situation. On the first day the food places didn’t open until well after the con started. On the second day the lines were longer than I have even seen them. I waited an hour in line only to be told they were out of the one thing I wanted. And of course, the food is way overpriced.

Anyway, the con was great as always. Spending 3 days around my people was great. I saw more friends than usual and even arranged to meet up with one, which I don’t usually do because I kinda enjoy being alone at conventions and going at my own pace. I’m already looking forward the next con.

While I was at LeakyCon, I spent a lot of time thinking about fandoms. I’m a major Star Trek fan. More specifically, I a major Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. I’ve seen every episode and movie many times. If I came across a rerun, I used to be able to recognize an episode and tell you the title and season within seconds. I haven’t put that to the test in a while since you don’t see reruns on TV anymore. I know there are people who are more obsessed with it than me, but I’m pretty obsessed. Star Trek: TNG is definitely the series I’m the most obsessed with, even more than LOST.

I thought that I was fairly knowledgeable about Doctor Who. I’ve seen every episode since the relaunch at least once. I spend a decent amount of time chatting with people about it. At the Doctor Who meetup at LeakyCon, we sat around in the circle and discussed the show. I knew there would be people who knew a lot more than me. I was just hoping to be able to contribute to the conversation. As the discussion went around the circle on different topics, I was just happy that I knew what people were talking about. At one point, I was having trouble hearing what was going on when all of a sudden pretty much the entire circle of 50 or so people burst into some Doctor Who-related song. Later, I remembered hearing “Pandorica” and “Amy” and “River”. When they finished, I had no idea what had just happened. It blew my mind. They all knew the song word for word, but I had never heard of it before. Earlier they had all sung a Harry Potter song, but I figured that was from the Harry Potter musical that I have refused to watch.

Later on, with the help of Google, I discovered that the Doctor Who song is by a UK band that writes songs inspired by Doctor Who. They write songs INSPIRED BY DOCTOR WHO. I had no idea this kind of thing existed, but I shouldn’t be surprised. These guys are big on YouTube apparently. The Internet wasn’t around when Star Trek: TNG was on, much less YouTube. I wonder how it would have been different for me if I had the Internet when that show was on. I don’t do a lot of general web surfing these days, but I did when I was in college and had more free time (I didn’t get Internet access until my freshman year of college in 1997). I’m hardly ever on YouTube, but if I had it in 1990, I probably would have spent hours watching Star Trek videos. Most of the people in the Doctor Who discussion were at least 10 years younger than me.

I already knew that the Internet has changed fandoms. I’m already a part of several online communities. This Doctor Who discussion made me realize that I’m not utilizing everything that I could. I have to step up my geek game if I want to keep up with these young people. Or maybe I don’t need to. I’m doing fine the way I am now.

Leading up to Christmas, there were times when I was really into the season and times when I wanted it to be over. Of course, the traveling was what I was dreading. I hate flying and driving gets old after a while.

I flew to Mississippi on the 23rd. This is the first time I’ve flown United. I had already made plans to fly to Jackson months before I knew everyone would be in Georgia for Christmas. I was going to cost around $1000 to change the flight to Atlanta, so I figured I would drive the rest of the way since I had already planned to rent a car. I spent the night in Jackson and drove to Decatur the next day. I had a blast in Georgia. I hadn’t seen my sister, brother-in-law, and niece in a little over 2 years and my mom since February. My niece is almost 3 now. She is adorable. I never got tired of her calling me “Uncle Will”. She wore me out a few times. I don’t see how parents do it. Seeing her joy at opening her gifts made me happy. It was great seeing everybody again and getting caught up.

The day after Christmas it was time to return to Portland. I drove back to the airport in Jackson. I ran into a high school classmate at the airport. Our plane was late leaving Jackson due to the plane arriving late in Jackson due to bad weather in Houston. I think we made up some time in the air, but it wasn’t enough. Between leaving late and being stuck waiting for a gate to open up after we landed, I missed my connection. I rushed through the airport as fast as I could. When I made it to the gate for my next flight and handed the lady my boarding pass, word came over the walkie that the door had closed. It was too late in the day for another flight. I was put on standby on the first flight out the next day. I didn’t like the fact that the customer service guy made it sound like it was my fault that I missed my connection. United put me up in a room in Houston, but I had to pay for most of it because my missed connection was caused by something beyond their control. This will probably be the last time I fly United, though other airlines would’ve probably done the same thing. I got a seat on that flight the next day and was glad when I finally made it home. Overall, a great Christmas, but I may be trying to convince everyone to come to Portland next year :).

What did I get this year?

• How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston
• Super Fly on DVD
• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlen
• A Best Buy gift card that I’ve already spent
• A nice shirt that I’ll probably wear on NYE
• The Bourne Legacy on blu-ray
• A Tardis cookie jar and Texas cookie cutter
• One gift that I still haven’t received yet