green technology jobs: What's better than my snarky movie reviews? My ?What I did on my ...

You may all be wondering where the ever-loving Trollboy has been. ?I could have been anywhere for the last week. ?Area 51, a lovely place to visit and its very cave-like atmosphere always makes me feel right at home. ?Ry?leh, very nice this time of year and the host has the best snacks EVAH! ?Or was I visiting The?Illuminati?headqu?, oh I?m sorry, I was just informed I can?t talk about that. ?Those would be really awesome things to write about, but instead I was sent on a secret mission to escort Melvin to the most?terrifying?of all places. ?A place so horrible, so evil, so worse than Mos Eisley.

The Quest Giver.

That place is?

The 2011 San Diego International Comic Con! ?Yep! ?That?s right, Comic Con! ?The mecca for all things pop culture related. ?My mission to guard Melvin started way back in?November?when tickets were released the first time. ?The servers crashed, but no one said anything to the thousands of people attempting to get tickets. ?I waited on line for four hours, no tickets. ?Then we tried for tickets again, rinse/repeat last go, 2 hours, no tickets. ?Then in February I waited on line for six hours. ?Tickets were purchased, but the coveted ?4 Day Pass? was sold out so I had to buy daily passes. ?I got Thursday, Friday, and Sunday passes. ?Saturday was at that point deemed a day of rest by myself and the all powerful Internet Gods! (insert lightning sound effect here)

Fast forward to Wednesday July 20, 2011. ?Friends have arrived, Con gear has been packed, car readied for trip across the desert, and then the fatal word that launched this journey was said. ??Engage?. ?And with that, we were off. ?New adventures awaited my companions and I as we babbled about all the neat things we were about to do and see.

We got to San Diego at about midnight, got settled in our rental house, then went shopping for food. ?When all was said and done, we were sleeping by about 3 AM, and up about 6 AM. ?Melvin did not want to leave without some coffee, so we brewed some up for everyone and then we were ready to rock this Con!

We arrived and got in our first of many?insanely long lines of the weekend. ?(Comic Con survival tip: Wear awesomely comfortable shoes. ?You will be walking and standing a lot. ?I mean a whole hell of a lot, so make sure you and your?footwear?love each other, or else you will have lovely blisters to nurse while all of your friends do The Con.) ?This line was for our passes into The Con. ?This was an enjoyable 2 hour wait as we were sent to an assortment of hallways, stairwells, and a marina to get our coveted passes. ?We did manage to run into one of Melvin?s friends. ?I didn?t catch his name, but he looked really familiar.

After passes were procured, it was off to see what The Con had to offer. ?We all had panels we wanted to sit in on, but due to the insane-o line we just got through, we missed them. ?(Comic Con survival tip: Make sure you are okay with the fact that you will miss seeing the uber-sweet panel starring everyone from you favorite tv show/movie/video game because of long lines or room space. ?It happens. ?It is disappointing, but it happens. ?You have been warned.)

So instead of lamenting the missing of some panels, we decided to make our way to the exhibit floor to see what geekly sights The Con had for us. ?There were many. ?I will stop typing now and show you some of them. ?Enjoy.