Greg's world of the weird

The last twenty four hours from http://twitter.com/mrtonylee

• 10:24 @sispurrier - Damn, was looking forwards to drinking with you. #
• 10:25 In bar at Heathrow waiting for plane. Can't turn back now. Okay, I know I CAN, but you get the gist... #

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http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com

In the O'Neills in Terminal 3. Killing time before I can board my plane in 20 minutes. Have entire 7th season of West Wing on the PSP just waiting to be watched. Huzzah for technology.

Hopefully  we'll have another update when I land at LA.

Amusing start of the day - I was up at 5.30, left the house by 6am, drove to my Dad's, he dropped me off to the airport at 8.20am. I wave him off, gather my bags and walk straight into a grinning Mark Buckingham. I'm on the 11.35 American Airlines to Los Angeles, he's on the 11.30 Virgin Airlines. We wave each other off and I proceed to stand in an hour long check in queue while satin draped Virgin Airways lovelies coo and stroke at Mark and whisk him off to the Virgin executive line for important busywhizzes.

And he's staying at the Hyatt. I hate him.

So this time tomorrow? I'll be somewhere over a lot of water and very high up as a hollow metal missile with wings stuck on the side flies me to the San Diego Comic Con.

And as ever, I will try to keep a daily blog going here. In previous years, this has failed by Wednesday.

But either way, I shall be in contact - either here or by Twitter. So be good while I'm away, and don't get into trouble. :-)

As several people are doing this, I thought I'd join in.

WEDNESDAY

Wait in the queue to get my Pro pass. That's right, kids, from around 2.30 until 4.30pm I'll be in line, swearing and being rushed from person to person while smiling blandly.

THURSDAY

Yeah, right.

FRIDAY

Be serious.

SATURDAY

Getting the idea?

SUNDAY

This is the day! At 12pm I'm in the - oh, wait. No I'm not.

Yup, this San Diego is signing and panel lite for the first time ever due to a variety of publishers not having stock for me to sign in. Which is great. Expect to find me around the IDW booth though, in panels or at either the Marriott pool bar (the nicest bar in the world), the Hyatt bar (which, regardless of boycotts is still going to be creator central) and a variety of swanky afterparties.

That said, I do have a couple of rather interesting meetings.

I usually get pretty annoyed when I see people making things out to be way more complicated and difficult than they are, going way over the top in terms of gesticulations in order to give the illusion of competence.

Congratulations to the guy in this video for becoming the new 'best example'.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36483.html

Curses! This is going to result in a myriad of rubbish youtube videos, showing talentless people pretending to have talent by dancing around like jerks with their fisher price guitars! Nooo!

Although, Rockband instruments will work on it apparently, which is quite cool :)

Additionally, anyone who hasn't seen the watchmen trailer yet, it's now officially "out there"

http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

Incidentally, on that website, if you pick an option in the menu then press close, then menu, then close etc.. you can see the various characters standing in different positions. When Rorshach is at the front, his face is totally moving all over the place. Fanboy juices overload!

Squeeeeeeeeeee!

So just finished watching the third part of Dr Horribles sing along blog, Joss Whedon's little pet project during the writers strike;

It's classic Whedon - funny, devilishly intelligent dialogue and a blatent disregard for upsetting people!

I was actually converted to Whedon by rubytitania. Before meeting her, i would have probably thought you were daft if you reccomended shows like Buffy and Angel to me. Funnily enough though, i was in a restaurant with some of my very good friends about 1 year ago, and I remember them basically laughing at me because I was trying to convince them that Buffy and Angel are two of the most culturally important movements in our generation. If I'd have said that to me five years ago, I'd probably have laughed at me too.

So, this is the long way of saying... if you haven't already... go and check it out.


http://www.drhorrible.com/

So we settled on a name for the cat;

Princess Ambelina Dax

not my idea :) which when you consider that our other cat is called 'Francisco Morah Catlet', means we have some pretty oddly named cats!

Although, their collars just say 'Amber' and 'Cisco'

:)

What's the best comic store in Cardiff?

;-)

T

Before something kills the link - Go watch the trailer of Watchmen that's going out with Batman: Dark Knight from tomorrow...

Make with the clicky thing here...

It looks incredibly faithful to the book...

So I survived visiting a hot and sunny island and subsequently arranged my pension.

Does this make me old?

Still pondering e-book readers. Kind of leaning towards Cybook.

If you've been watching it already (and you should be), part two of Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog by Joss Whedon is up at the website.

Personally, I'm loving it, and I'm looking forwards to the panel at San Diego. I've been hearing about this for months, and it's great to finally see it.

And I'd forgotten just how much I love Neil Patrick Harris.

So, being self employed, I'm considering some health insurance. And as such, I'm looking at BUPA. But although I've spoken to nice BUPA people, I want some opinions of them that aren't 'sales biased'.

Any BUPAites out there who can talk to me about this? leave their opinions, etc?

The last twenty four hours from http://twitter.com/mrtonylee

• 12:38 Prince Of Baghdad dine and dusted. Now onto Necrophim and Doctor Who. Maybe sleep involved at some point, but doubtful. #
• 14:03 @warrenellis - is the Eee worth looking at? I'm considering one but it all depends on size, weight etc. #
• 14:04 @sispurrier - same as I just asked Warren - is the Eee worth looking at? I maybe shopping for a new ultra portable laptop next month... #
• 00:34 @templesmith - @joshfialkov - The problem last year was that so many people were in different hotels, the Hyatt was one of several anyway. #
• 00:44 @templesmith Marriott's a plan but still run by Mormons. Considering my hotels in Coronado, ANYWHERE I drink will be a ballache to get home! #
• 00:45 @kodychamberlain - We have orders from your wife on keeping you under control in bars. Oh yes we do. :-) #
• 00:48 @brianwood - agreed. Having been barstaff, tips are vital. I think people will probably not boycott but instead 'air grieviences' there... #
• 00:49 @joshfialkov - It's the Marriott. Me, Dulaney, Chris Kirby and Bart Thomspon. It's like the comics version of the A-Team. #

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Phone collapsed last night. Luckily I'd been talking to madwelshwizard about updates and suchlike and as such was able to sort it out by 3am. Now have Windows PPC 6.1 on there. No change, really.

Got to sleep at 3.30am, got up at 9.30am. So far today have finished Prince Of Baghdad book one which is a nice chunk of story and a nice lead into book two. We discuss what happens with that when I get back from San Diego, so I can put it to the back of my head.

Want to start playing with Necrophim today, start getting the characters voices right in my head. I was going to work on Doctor Who: The Forgotten #5 but I have a week or two of leeway there and I want to talk to my new editor at San Diego about the Ninth Doctor segment. That just leaves the adaptation thing, the pitches, the next DFC thing - Faerie Tale, the King Arthur GN and plots for a couple of other things including the revised Steambabies, now called Empire's End: The Children Of Steam - but more news on that after San Diego. I've also promised to start working on a plot and treatment for a six issue 'book two' of Midnight Kiss. Yeah, I never thought I'd say that either.

So I'm ahead of the curve with five days to go. Let's see how long that lasts...

In other news. I'm considering watching either In Plain Sight or Mad Men (both finishing season one) on the plane - anyone got any opinions on these?

The last twenty four hours from http://twitter.com/mrtonylee

• 10:10 Happy birfday @kellysue - hope you have a good one :-) #
• 10:11 Guh. Leave laptop at 2am to sleep. Wake up, sit in front of it again by 9am. Repeat as needed. Boy, do I love the week before San Diego... #
• 11:10 @sispurrier - Welcome to the madhouse. Now watch your productivity drop. #
• 11:12 @Emmavieceli - Did SelfMadeHero explain what it was? #
• 11:38 Why is there not a button that I can press that sends a million volts of energy down the intertubes to fry idiot artists who need to LEARN? #
• 13:09 Dollars bought, one more tick off my OCD packing Excel sheet. #
• 14:38 Bloody hell. Less than a week to SDCC and my wallet is stolen with all my cards and money in! GAHHHHH #
• 15:34 Update - Police found wallet, minus money and VISA card. called bank, cancelled card. Now playing the waiting game. #
• 15:35 @jimmyaquino - hopefully. Luckily I didn't have the dollars I'd just bought in it... #
• 17:18 @BarbieHead - It's a coin toss. But it wouldn't be a SDCC for me without some kind of major pre trip stress... #
• 17:37 @mckelvie - Give me a good album to listen to. I need new things. Whatever's being played the most on your ipod. #
• 17:44 @RyanStegman - You're genetically unable to draw faster. I remember when you even slower! #
• 21:49 @templesmith in teabagging shocker. Film at 11. #

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Anybody been watching any of the E3 announcements? There's been a few suprises/highlights so far. For example; a DS GTA game, A sequel to Wii Sports (and some other new wii gadgets) and God of War 3.

But best of all: Final Fantasy 13 is coming out on the 360!! This is good news on so many levels! It means;

1) I'll get to play it.
2) It looks amazing.
3) It's gonna make a particular sony fanboy at work LIVID!