March 25, 2004


Left to right: I don't know, I don't know, me, I don't know, and I don't know. Photo courtesy of Alan Mark. Lovely ladies courtesy of The Blackbird Group, about whose actual products I unsurprisingly still know very, very little.

See? Proof of actual booth babes. There were also giveaways, contests, and an amazing display of over-the-top marketing from the GWAVA folks, courtesy of my friend and sometime comic-convention companion, Mister Bliss, who built the show's only two-story booth and gave away Bond DVD collections, personal DVD players, and a Las Vegas vacation.

My presentations seem to have gone okay. It's either that I know what I'm talking about, or that I had my minions confiscate all the tomatoes at the door.

The only blemish on the whole event was my hotel room'sWayport internet connection. I spent nearly an hour on the phone after three days of no service only to discover that they would not reverse the charges on my bill. Interestingly enough, the nice man I spoke to would not give me his email address or his name, even though I gave him mine. All I can say is if I ever need an internet connection and have a choice between Wayport and something else, I'll choose the something else, even if it means picking another hotel.

(Schlock readers working for Wayport may feel quite free to email me privately and defend their company's customer service policy, which from the outside appears to be "The customer is lying and trying to steal from us. Get the thumbscrews.")

Anyway, it's been a great show. Two more days and I'm done. I need it to be done. I'm eating waaay too much thanks to buffets and the fact that I suffer from "goldfish effect" (I'll keep eating until I'm too big for my tank.) Of course, I don't NEED buffets to get fat. Wednesday night I went to The Blue Iguana in downtown SLC and pigged all the way out on an amazing dish of pork loin smothered in Mole Negro which, for the non-spanish-speaking among you, is NOT a skin blemish on a colored person. I'm still bloated, but it's a happy "I ate porkchops in chocolate sauce" kind of bloat.

I hope you'll forgive the dearth of entry updates and forum posts. My days are full, and my nights are largely connectionless.