One of the only exercises that I've been able to consistently do and enjoy over the years is rollerblading. The location where I do this is also key. I love skating from El Porto down to the end of Hermosa Beach and back along "the Strand" in the South Bay.

Last night I got some good skating in after work which helps to ease the stress of the day and align my perspective on life a bit. Generally this stretch of beach is almost like a paradise with beautiful homes and beautiful people all playing volleyball, surfing or just enjoying the SoCal life style.

But I just had to laugh as I was cruising along as I noticed ...

This is going to be Kianna's day. I've been told she is too cute to be molded into a geek... we'll just see about that!

Things are happening fast this year.

Woke up around 6AM, heated up the double shots, tuned to Fox News to see what's happening in the ME.

Uploaded "Worship at the Park 2006" images to mylhcc.com

Got a text from Dan and will hook up at the con.

Woke up at 4:30AM, heated up dos double shots, tuned to Fox News and hopped on the ‘puter.

On the trolley I sat face to face with a guy who seemed to think the only way a person could hear him through his cell phone was to raise his voice about 50 decibels. I after the ringing in my ear drums subsided I had to laugh a bit. He was telling his girlfriend how he didn't want to be "that guy". I didn't have the heart to burst his bubble.

I picked up a few more missing ish's of Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom. Now I'm only missing #5, #13, #14 and #29 I did find a few of these remaining ones but they were in far to fine a condition for my budget. I'm just trying to collect the story on this one.

I showed up at the Stan Lee: Who Want to be a Super-hero? panel. I looked for Dan's friend Yuka but wasn't sure who she was and it was too busy anyways. Perhaps I'll meet her later today.

Battlestar Galactica panel was very good especially since 4 main characters showed up including the "Old Man" himself. I'm sorry to report there was no sign of Boomer though. Unless you're interested in the original Boomer, he's there every year.

Tim and Nicole drove down in the afternoon and I had the pleasure of saying hi to them. It looks like they were having a good time taking in all the splendor of the exhibitor hall. It's a shame they didn't arrive in time to see the BsG presentation though.

Wednesday July 19, 2006

Met Tommie a homeless woman on the trolley. I gave her $1 because it was honestly the only cash I had on my person. She dropped some change under her bench but refused to take the pennies because she hates pennies. I told her she should save them but they weren’t worth her time. She opened up to me as I witnessed her routine of asking folks for money and riding the trolley without paying. She said that she wasn’t interested in getting a job for a long list of reasons but also said that begging really was her job. She makes about $80 a day doing that. I even witnessed her appeal to a Hispanic rider for dinero in broken Spanish. I understand enough Spanish to have followed the conversation. She told her she needed the money for family and because of other physical hardships, but the lady said she didn’t have any money to offer. I tried to think of how I could mention the love of Christ to her explicitly but just showing that love had to suffice as time ran out when I got to my destination. Perhaps I’ll see her more over the next few days.

As soon as I got my badge at the convention center and picked up my official comic con publication I see the cover art this year is Lone Wolf and Cub. What a wonderful coincidence this was since this was going to be the item I was looking for the Chun’s this year.

Town and Country Resort is a very nice place to stay and the trolley ride is far more convenient than I anticipated. The only thing that sucks is how they charge for *everything*. I’m paying an extra $10 a day for a refrigerator, $10 for internet access and $12 for parking! They even charge extra if you drink the bottled water they have for you in the room. At least I brought my own water.

I bought 2 exclusive con issues of The Red Star. Looks real good and is providing more background on the characters including the Red Lady... finally. Way cool, that.

Thursday July 20, 2006

I'm looking forward to seeing Deepak Chopra talking about the Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes at 3PM today. I can't believe even he is here this year. He actually is a co-founder of Virgin Comics, go figure.

I'm just out the door to make sure I catch Richard Hatch's panel at noon. Stay tuned.

On the trolley ride over to the convention a guy complimented me on my Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame t-shirt that I picked up in Seattle a couple weeks ago. It really is a fantastic shirt and I caught several people throughout the day taking a good look at it.

The Richard Hatch presentation was excellent. He basically spotlighted the music director for the show, Bear McCreary. They showed some examples of matching the music to the show. One of the things I discovered that endears me even more to Battlestar Galactica is that one could actually call it Oingostar Galactica. Several members of Oingo Boingo are on the musical team! You’ve just got to love that.

I slipped into the Aspen Comics panel for just a second to see if anyone was going to talk about Ekos and if it will ever become a reality. It didn’t seem like it was going to come up so I asked at their booth. It turns out people like myself have been asking for over 2 years now and it just hasn’t taken off yet. I’ll keep waiting because I think that comic shows real promise.

Found a booth selling old collections for $2 a comic. I found 6 missing issues of Dr. Solar and snatched them up for a steal.

I stopped by the Comic-Con booth and purchase 5, count them 5, t-shirts. I got this year’s with Superman, 2001 with the Green Arrow, 2000 with the Flash, 1997 with Alfred E. Newman and 1989 with Batman.

The Virgin Comics presentation with Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra was extremely interesting but also difficult to sit through at times because it got rather "preachie". I'll have a lot more to say about this one since it deals with theology and philosophy.