Today is clearly Recognize Priscilla’s Awesomeness Day!

First: OMG, GUYS! I’m on IMDB! I just modeled a few little things for the movie in my internship last summer. I had no idea I would be credited! Man, I am so much more excited about this than I should be. XD

Second: Thematic Consultant Love in the second issue of the Dresden Files comic book! Get the full 5-page preview for the issue here.

Holy cow! Get ready for the most amazingly mindblowing feat of subconscious Scrabble you’ve ever seen!

Look on the right side of the board. By playing the vertical word “DOM,” I spelled out three new words horizontally: “ID,” “DO,” and “HIM.” Or “Dom: I’d do him.”

Dominic Monaghan? I haven’t thought of him in a while, but yeah… I guess I would.

It’s Scrabble-fate.

I will claw out my uterus with my bare hands. My standard “Aleve and chocolate” drug cocktail offers me no relief, even when said chocolate is in the form of the best chocolate milkshake I’ve encountered so far in the city. I hate you, X-chromosomes.

So! Flight of the Conchords!

(For my parents and for any fools people who haven’t seen them yet, watch the following: The Humans Are Dead (Live), Business Time (Live), Bret, You’ve Got It Going On, The Sello Tape of Love, and Albi the Racist Dragon to get a feeling of who these guys are. Then rent/buy Season One of the TV show and laugh until you cry.)

My seat was pretty good, especially considering that tickets sold out in like twelve minutes and I logged on five minutes after they went on sale. I was smack-dab in the center, about three-quarters of the way back on the balcony. Nice! Or at least, it was nice until Hagrid’s big brother sat down in front of me. I was practically sitting in the lap of the person next to me, to see around him.

The show was fabulous! They played all of my favourite songs, with the exception of “Bret You Got It Goin’ On,” plus several hilarious new ones. I feel like there were three, but I can only remember two: one featuring a chorus of Jemaine’s ex-girlfriends, complaining about what an awful boyfriend he is to some girl he’s just met, and the other an uproariously funny list of “freaky” kinks.

The only downside was the sheer number of jerks in the crowd. People were really, really obnoxious about shouting out song requests, especially this one girl in the front of the balcony, who kept shouting things at the guys for the sake of getting attention. After Jemaine politely shushed her the fifth or sixth time, she contented herself with merely standing up periodically and dancing to the music–I think she was drunk, actually. I’m surprised she wasn’t muscled out by the security folks twenty minutes into the show.

As for the after-show… I think my parents named the wrong daughter “Melissa,” because I really felt I should be answering to “Mel.” :D I did the “wait outside the stage door for an hour” thing, befriending three other Conchord fans in the process. I noticed early on that–much to my chagrin–I accidentally left my camera battery in the charger, so I used the dinky camera in my iPhone (hence the shakiness of the photo of Bret) and relied on one of my new friends, who had brought a camera. Hopefully, she’ll send me the photos in the next few days!

When the boys finally came out, they were obviously exhausted, but they still stayed outside long enough to ensure that they’d signed stuff for or taken pictures with everyone that wanted it. And there were like 40 people! Pure class.

Altogether, not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening. :D

I stand corrected.

Your jealousy smells like Marmite. It’s more New Zealand-y that way.

I accidentally left my camera battery in the charger this morning, so these are a couple taken with my iPhone. Another girl waiting with me at the stage door got some better ones of us–I just had to post these now!

P.S. Who knew Bret was tall? He seems so much shorter on TV. And the picture of me with Jemaine, without him realizing a photo is being taken, is a rival for the title of my favourite photo of me ever. Me geeking out, while the object of my geekery looks like he would rather be somewhere else… It should be in the Great Internet Dictionary under “Fangirl.”

And now it’s time for bed.

Episode 2 of the Jim-Butcher.com news podcast, Butcher ‘Spress, is up! Check it out here, and laugh at my “Rain in Spain” awkwardness as I attempt to speak at a much slower pace.

Also, new Dresden fic here (varying spoiler levels) and here (MAJOR SmF spoilers).

Hey, kids! It’s the super-belated New York Comic Con post!

Verdict: Ridiculously awesome.

I already posted about Friday’s highlight at the Gaiman panel, but here’s the full account. We were let out of work early, so instead of getting dressed at the con itself, I changed in the bathroom at work, where I would have comparatively more space and privacy. Then came the fun of making my way across midtown Manhattan while dressed like the anthropomorphic personification of delirium! The number of horrified stares was far eclipsed by the number of “You go, girl”-esque responses. The most fun came when I walked past a huge gathering of people (maybe 200) in brightly-colored cultural dress from around the world. You could just see the “I wonder what she represents?” question in the kids’ eyes.

I first headed to the CNI booth to say hello to Joe and Jimmy and drop off the bag containing my work clothes, and to say goodbye to Jimmy’s hair. Jimmy has had long, gorgeous, Pantene-ad hair for 20 years, but he finally decided to cut it on Saturday and donate it to Locks of Love, raising over five hundred dollars for the charity in the process. More power to him! My timing happened to coincide with their first raffle, so I read out the ticket numbers for them. T’was fun!

Next, I headed downstairs to wait in line for the Gaiman event. I was nearly an hour early, yet there were already something like thirty people in line! I chatted with my neighbors and got my photo taken approximately eleventy billion times, which was all kinds of fun! Much to my dismay, I realized just how short my skirt was and how conspicuous I felt wearing it, so I decided to wear my capris underneath it on Saturday.

Neil was presaged by a hilarious short speech by Bill Hader of SNL, a huge Gaiman fan. Then Neil came out, read a pair of short stories, did the Q&A thing I recounted in the earlier entry, and read chapter 3 of The Graveyard Book, which is going to be phenomenal. I can’t wait!

Saturday morning, I hooked up with my friend and fellow RPer John, aka The Boy, and his father and uncle. We spent much of the morning cruising the floor, hooking up with Will and his buddy Dave (one of his Beauty and the Geek co-stars) along the way. Fairly early on, we stopped by the Dabel Brothers’ booth, and I got to meet the gang in person. The Dabel Brothers are the publishers of the Dresden Files comic book, on which I serve as a Thematic Consultant. Unfortunately, Ernst (eldest of the brothers and our main liason) had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t be in attendance, but it was great to get to meet Derek and the rest of the team. Derek is a really fun guy and amazingly generous–when I inquired about the price of the NYCC edition of Dresden #1, he immediately handed John and me a huge stack of comics with all three editions of Dresden #1 and the first issue of their other title, Wild Cards. Woo, royal treatment!

Eventually, 11 rolled around, and we headed over to the Midtown Comic booth, where Jim Butcher was doing his first signing of the day. Jim instantly recognized me despite my insane Delirium wig (or perhaps because of it?), and introduced me to Jennifer Jackson, his agent, and Anne Sowards, his editor. My conversation with Anne was cut short by a bunch of fanboys clammoring for a photo with me (rar! couldn’t they see I was occupied?), but I got to chat a bit longer with Jennifer, who is quite clearly one of the most awesome people on the planet, and who is also blessed with the ability to surround herself with similarly awesome people.

While John and I waited for Jim’s signing to end at 11:30 (when the three of us would grab lunch together), he scoped out nearby booths. Unfortunately, around 11:40, when Jim and I hooked back up, John was nowhere to be seen. I left him four voicemails over the space of 11:20 to 11:40, to no avail. In the last, I told him Jim and I were headed to the food court, and to call me when he got the message.

It was a wonderful, relaxing lunch. One of the things I enjoyed so much about PhauxCon was the casual, laid-back atmosphere, but even my beloved micro-con couldn’t entirely remove the faint “Jim and Shannon are the Guests of Honor” hierarchy. Also, I myself was so fanstruck at the time! The one-on-one (and later, two-on-one, when John finally checked his phone) nature of this conversation was an absolute delight. He even paid for my lunch! :D

We chatted about anything and everything: our favourite new-series Doctors (Jim: 9, me: 10), the lolcat phenomenon, comic book trailers, awful Sci-Fi Channel movies (and the Butcher family tradition of Shannon and J.J. tearing down the movie, and Jim attempting to defend it as the Best Movie Ever), the awesomeness of Ray Park and the great loss to our culture suffered at the absence of a Toad/Nightcrawler fight in X2, why on earth political figures go on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, something that happens in a future Dresden book that will cause the entire fandom’s head to explode, oh my god… You know, the usual.

He also signed John’s orange box knife for use in my new Butcher ‘Spress podcast logo. As the daddy podcast, The Butcher Block, uses an actual signed butcher block, I felt the box knife surrounded by pizza was appropriate (both are associated with the fan-favourite Dresden character Toot-toot, a faerie who occasionally provides Harry with information–not a bad mascot for a news podcast). Then we gave the camera our best skeptical eyebrows and headed off to explore the con floor together! Eventually, around 1:30, John and I returned him safe and sound to the Dabel Table (this is more clever when you note that “Dabel” and “Table” rhyme) so he could prepare for the Dabel Bros’ panel at 2.

On my way down to the panel, I ran into my friend Kevin, who was dressed as his beloved character Unemployed Skeletor in preparation for the Masters of the Universe panel. We vowed to find some opportunity to hang out soon, as we never see each other and that is lame.

The Dabel panel was quite nifty. Afterwards, I went to a panel on making it as a voice actor, then John and I resumed our floor-meandering ways. I went by the CNI table to see Jimmy’s new hair, which looks great! I was terrified he’d do something short and unJimmylike, but his hair was so long that they were able to cut SIXTEEN INCHES, and his hair still brushed his shoulders. He seemed still somewhat traumatized, but I tried to assure him his Samsonlike powers had not been diminished. YOU ARE A HERO TO CANCERKIDS EVERYWHERE, JIMMY! THANK YOU!

Around 5, we looped back around to the Dabel Table for the signing with Jim and Dresden cover artist Chris McGrath. Chris and I got to chatting, and it turns out we live five blocks away from each other! Crazy!

We then dawdled around until it was time for the Great Podcasting Dinner! Unfortunately, my table was not a particularly energetic one, and John and I ended up leaving earlier than I’d predicted, both exhausted. Suckage.

Sunday, I dressed up as Maeve, which wasn’t a great idea. I’d forgotten how awkward that huge wig is and how easily tangled those sequin strings yet. It’s a great costume for a small event, but it’s not something to wear at a huge con. I got quickly overheated under the weight of the wig and the claustrophobic crowd, and I ended up keeping the wig off for most of the time. I finally met up with Kristin–we’d kept just missing each other all weekend–and she was jokingly cross at me for wearing a costume she’d already seen, as she’d been looking forward to seeing Delirium. We cruised the floor once more, on the lookout for any droolworthy Doctor Who and BSG merch, and I ended up with a Kittens With Cupcakes bag and a 12″ action figure of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas (with mini PVC Mayor and Werewolf).

Kristin: I don’t get the Green Arrow. On a team where you already have Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, what do you need an archer for?
John: Well, he was rich…
Kristin: You think he bought his way on to the Justice League?
Me: His daddy bought everyone on the team Nimbus 2001s.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at the CNI booth. At closing time, we helped Jimmy pack up, then Kristin, John, and I went off in search of California Pizza Kitchen. Yum! The evening was spent watching episodes of “Wonderfalls” and “Pushing Daisies.” All in all, an AWESOME experience.

It’s great to be a geek. :D