February 28, 2004
Laaaaaag...entry,
I guess I was doing the sleep-deprivation thing in Germany. I fell asleep on the Frankfurt-Atlanta flight, and must have been out for at least four hours. I got home around 9pm, went to bed at 11pm, and slept in until almost 9am. At noon I laid down and took a two-hour nap. I think this means that in the last day and a half I've been asleep for sixteen hours.
I'm ready for another nap.
Homecoming has been frustrating. There were piles of day-job things for me to wade through on Friday, a day I THOUGHT I was taking off for personal stuff, but instead spent downstairs in my home office catching up.
Then I found out that the Hilton Gaslamp is sold out for Comic-Con 2004, along with every other hotel within easy walking distance of the convention. I did the bus-route thing my first year there, and I've pretty much decided that if I can't be right across the street or next-door, I'm not going.
Maybe it's the lag speaking, but I'm just too tired to think of the logistics involved in doing this particular 'con with my bed and base-of-operations a mile away. Thus, it is with heavy heart and suddenly unburdened shoulders that I announce my intention to not go to Comic-Con 2004. I've been there three years running, but I strongly suspect nobody will miss me this time around.
From this decision was born a strategy... this year I'll do small conventions instead. I'm already booked for Penguicon in April, Fandemonium in August, and Linucon in October. The more I think about it, the happier I am. These small conventions really are the heart of the fan community, and I'm looking forward to meeting "average" sorts of people who don't have the time or money to fly all the way to San Freaking Diego for a 70,000 fan pile-up.
(If anybody emails me about "sour grapes" they're going to get "grape-juice of wrath" for their trouble.)
And now, I need to get some drawing done. Apparently the buffer has dropped to 31 during my globe-trotting.