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Day 3 of Comic Con Has Started

Been here since 7 am, ready for day 3 to start & jump into Hall H for panels. First off is the final LOST panel. Hopefully they'll have the cast on board. If not, it'll still be an entertaining panel. Always is. Will be sad once Lost is done though. I'm a fanatic of the show. Just ask my family.
 
Well, will update blog later in the evening once Comic Con Day 3 is said & done.

-Rare
Sent from my iPhone

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Comic Con 2009 - Day 2

Today was Day 2 of Comic Con 2009. Went to bed super late. Woke up super early. Total hours of sleep, 2 1/2 hours. Knew it was going to be another long day, but was ready for it. I just wanted to make sure that I was able to see all the panels that I planned for. And wanted to make sure that I was able to see/meet Olivia Munn again. So here we go. 

OMFG First Cali meet up. 
What a great way to kick start the day. Olivia Munn decided on Wednesday that she was going to do a secret meet up for people in Cali and for people that were going to Comic Con. So, if you were a member of her OMFG (Olivia Munn Fan Group), she sent you that email and you were informed that on Friday, Day 2 of Comic Con she was going to do a secret meet up at the Atom booth from 10-11 AM. I was the fourth one in line to meet her. And she  basically said to the group. I am here to meet all of you, my fans. I want to be able to give everyone a hug and take a picture with you. It was a sweet morning present. This makes it my #2 official meeting with the great Munnster. BTW... She provided these OMFG name tags. I printed mine out and taped it to my shirt. She thought it was cool looking and apparently pointed at it during our photo-op. I didn't pay attention and covered it. Boo...EPIC FAIL on my part.  

Caprica / Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
This was the first panel that I wanted to see. It mainly focused on the upcoming BSG dvd called Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. It's basically BSG but through the eyes of the Cylons. Pretty cool. Found out about some spoilers of BSG. I know that the actual show is over, but I haven't completely finished season 4 or 4.5. Admiral Adama did say a spoiler, but that's okay. I'm still going to watch it and finish it finally. Especially before I watch The Plan. 



The Big Bang Theory Panel
One of the more important panels that I really wanted to catch since I missed out on it last year. This cast is seriously awesome. The whole panel was completely entertaining. I'm so glad that I got into watching this show this year. It's great. Always puts a smile on my face. And can totally relate to a lot of their references, minus the physics. Season 3 starts up again on September 21 at 9:30 PM, PST. 

24
Another great show that I am completely devoted in watching. Jack Bauer is kick ass and wanted to see what was up for the upcoming Season 8. Awesome to see that actress, Katee Sackhoff who played Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica is going to be on it. She's an awesome actress. Loved her in BSG, and can't wait to see her in action in 24. 


Today was considered Star Wars Day. I didn't really get to see a lot of costumes around because I was mainly inside watching panels. But caught a few in passing from one area to another. 

White pie with mozzarella with bacon - LARGE 
White pie with mozzarella with mashed potato and chicken - SMALL 

BASIC 
410 Tenth Avenue, San Diego CA 92101 (619)531.8869

All the long panels got my stomach aching for some real food to eat. Most of the morning to afternoon, I was feeding my hunger with beef jerky, cheese goldfish, taki & oreo cookies. I need to get some real food. For the past 2 years it's been something that I wanted to do was to eat at Basic in downtown at least once during Comic Con, and we did. It was so yummy. 


Group Picture with the cast of The Guild - AWESOME online show. LOVE it. 
Quick snapshot with the The Guild lovelies, Felicia Day & Amy Okuda. They were so friendly and awesome to chat with. Very genuine in person. I was so bummed because one of the panels that I really wanted to see was The Guild panel, and was unable to get in because it got to full capacity. There were still a lot of people that wanted to go in. So, I decided to support this awesome cast and bought Season 1 & 2 of their show, and got the covers autographed. Gotta keep supporting indie groups that always keep you entertained. Season 3 is coming out in August. 

Well, these were the highlights of my day. Nothing too crazy, because I mainly stayed inside watching panels. But I did manage to get a few other shots around. Check out the pictures from my Picasa. 
http://picasaweb.google.com/raremac/ComicCon2009Day02#

Day 3 will be up after I survive it, hopefully. It's also going to be another long day, but totally worth it. 




     
Click here to download:
Comic_Con_2009_-_Day_2_tag_com.zip (395 KB)

   
Click here to download:
0Comic_Con_2009_-_Day_2_tag_com.zip (270 KB)

Filed under  //   comic con 2009  

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Comic Con 2009 - Day 1

Today was officially Day 1 of this year's Comic-Con International. Although I've been in this situation for past 13 years, I was really antsy for some reason. I only slept for 3 hours, and I survived being awake from 5:30 AM this morning, until now writing this blog and possibly after. You'll know how many hours I was able to get in on my Day 2 blog tomorrow.  It was an awesome day of just focusing on the exhibit hall and taking pictures. No panels, no CC exclusives to get, or anything requiring some serious standing/waiting in line action. Here are some of my highlights. 

Arrived at Comic Con at 7:20 AM or so, and this was the line that we saw from the parking structure we were at. This is the line for Hall H. MOST of these people were here strictly for The Twilight Series' New Moon panel at 1:45 PM. 

This is the line 10 minutes prior to Hall H opening. 

This is the conclusion of the photo above. Check out the line on the left that's lining up on the sidewalk by the street and then the line that wraps around near the water. C-R-A-Z-Y. All for Hall H. BTW, after Twilight's New Moon was over around 2:45-3:00. There were still people lining up just to catch whatever panels were still left for Hall H. Wonder if there were a lot of people disappointed for not being able to attend the Twilight panel. Hopefully they've learned their lesson and will be early next year for the third movie's panel. 

The line heading into the convention center. These are people that still need to pick up their daily pass.

After checking out the scenery outside, I finally got inside to start the long day. Welcome to Comic-Con International 2009. 

First person that I took a snapshot of that was in costume. He was an older fellow and was with a friend (not in costume) about the same age. I know they were old because they called me a young whipper snapper that probably didn't know who this guy was dressed as or what "AC" stood for on his friend's shirt. True, I didn't know what the AC stood for, but I knew what this guy was. He's dressed up as a member of the HYDRA, an organization that fought against Captain America. Wiki it if you don't believe me.

 
Some cool costumes - Silk Spectre and The Comedian from Watchmen

Nightwing & Superman 

Dude, even superheroes have to stand in line for some free schwag. BTW, The Dark Knight needs to hit the gym again. Don't think he's been working the streets of Gotham in a while. 

Seriously, the economy is hitting all superheroes & villains. Batman in line for free schwag & an unemployed Skeletor. Who's next? 

Though the economy affects everyone including our favorite characters, it's really great to see that they still know how to have some fun. At least the Storm Trooper does. Deadpool really wanted to strike a serious pose. 


Visited my friends at McFarlane Toys. They were sharing a booth with Image Comics. My buddy hooks me up with the NCAA Sports Figure that's coming out in a few weeks. SWEET!! Scored a freebie without even trying too hard to get it. 

Met Brea Grant , played Daphne "Nemesis of Hiro" on NBC's Heroes. She was signing at IDW's booth for her Zombii comic book. She was also giving away her CD that she did with Zane Grant called Zombii 2: Brea & Zane sing their hits. She was REALLY nice, petite, and very cute in person. Glad I went to the booth with my friend Anthony. 

BIGGEST highlight of my day. Met the cast of The Guild. An online show that's really funny and awesome. Also, Felicia Day is really pretty in person. I dig this redhead. And today was Sandeep's (Zaboo) birthday. 

Passed by this on our way out back to the parking lot since the day was over. Really cool art piece that contains 1547 pop culture characters, even Waldo. Ya gotta try to find him, as well as some of your favorites that you grew up with. Check out his blog, http://raysumser.blogspot.com/ . There's a bigger picture on his page. We stood in front of this piece for 20 minutes or so just checking it out and calling out characters that we recognized. And we were supposed to go to the parking lot to go home. 

Those were some of my favorite highlights of my day, but I did sort out 41 great pictures. Check out my Picasa page for Day 1 photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/raremac/ComicCon2009Day01#

Stay tuned for Day 2 updates. It's going to be another long day as well. 

Filed under  //   comic con 2009  

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Comic Con 2009 Preview Night

It's that time of the year again where the nerds, sci-fi geeks, comic book savants, and pop culture enthusiasts gather at America's Finest for Comic-Con International 2009. 

Due to my financial situation of being laid off in December, I couldn't be as frivolous as I was in previous years with my money. So, my goal is to see all the panels that I'm interested in. Unfortunately, there are a couple of overlapping time frames. So, I will have to filter out what I REALLY wanna see. Anyway, here are a couple of shots from today's Preview Night.

This is the view from the top level of the parking structure of the Hilton next to the convention center. That's the end of the line of campers for Hall H. Most of those people are waiting for the New Moon panel at 1:45 PM on Thursday. Yeah, this was taken on Wednesday at 2:15 PM. 

First one of the line for Hall H. Tent, check. Sleeping bag, check. McDonalds and stuffed animals, check. Wonder if they'll bring all their stuff inside the hall. They must not have a hotel in downtown. 

View of the line from beginning of the line going into Hall H.  Short video of the line. Can't really see the people, but they're there, hiding in the trees. 

I'm ready for Comic Con, are you? Yeah, all those are badges. I take full advantage of my "professional" status. 

One of the four lines waiting to get into the Exhibit Hall. This one is in the Sails Pavilion. Think I'll go get my late lunch, earlier dinner instead of waiting in line. 

Escalator leading to the Sails Pavilion for the regular 4-day pass holders. I'm on my way to see a special screening from Warner Bros. 

Warner Bros screening of Human Target, V, and Vampire Diaries.
- Human Target: Not too bad. Don't really understand who the main character is supposed to be and what he does. But there were a couple of stars that were from other great shows/movies, including Tricia Helfer "Six of BSG" and Jackie Earle Haley "Rorschach of Watchmen" to name a few. Guess I'll have to watch it again to see if I really want to get into a new TV series. 
- V: Remake of 1984 TV series, which I believe might actually be a good show. However, the series in the 80's only had 19 episodes. So, hopefully the writing doesn't start getting bad compared to what happened to Heroes. 
- Vampire Diaries: Well, I didn't stay to watch this. Not a real big fan on TV shows on the CW network. I used to be for Smallville, but that shows also started going down. 

New Moon line before heading home. Main line by the door looks a lot fuller than earlier this afternoon. However....

The New Moon line has added more lines. This is the beginning of the "snake line." I was told, if the snake line gets too full, they may need to re-snake people, or just cap it at the 6500 person max of the hall. 

Well, that's all I got for now. It was a good Preview Night. I was even able to squeeze in some time for the exhibit hall. Tomorrow will be a different story. My Comic Con day will start at 0700. Stay tuned for the next day blog. 

Filed under  //   comic con 2009  

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3GS is here

This is the line at the Apple Store in the Otay Ranch mall in Chula Vista. Not bad at all for being here 1.5 hours prior to them opening. This store has a good system going on. I'm in the reservations line.

-Rare
Sent from my iPhone

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Paintball Fun @ Velocity Park 06.07.09

Just another FunDay of paintball at the local park, Velocity Paintball in Ramona.
 
Here are some shots of BMC members RAREMAC and BRIO-1.

       
Click here to download:
Paintball_Fun_Velocity_Park_06.zip (744 KB)

More paintball shots after the URL jump. Check it out.
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/raremac/PaintballFunVelocity02#

Filed under  //   paintball  

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Weapon of Choice


Name: RAREMAC
Affiliation: Boogie Monsters Crew

Marker: Etek2 w/ Star Frame & 14" Stock Barrel
Hopper: Dye 09 Rotor
Tank: Ninja 50 cu - 4500 psi "peanut"

Filed under  //   paintball  

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Support Local Shops!

If you're into paintball and you're a San Diego native, you should support your local shops. 

Velocity Paintball has most products in stock. But if you can't find something at their shop, check out their online store at http://www.velocitypaintballonline.com

They have three shops located throughout San Diego: Bonita, Poway and El Cajon. 
With paintball products on hand and great customer service, what more can you ask for? 

Bonita (shown)
4248 B Bonita Road
Bonita, CA 91902
(619) 470.3533

Poway
12643 Poway Road
Poway, CA 92064
(858) 513.2778

El Cajon
1622 N Magnolia Avenue
El Cajon, CA 92020
(619) 448.4165

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LOST 05x13 Some Like It Hoth

I apologize for the late blog update. I was having trouble in getting a working torrent so I can take my usual screen grabs of the episode. But took care of that. However, I then got caught up doing other stuff and then had a super busy weekend of paintball. So, let's get started, shall we?

This week's Lost episode was pretty good. I liked the fact that we were finally getting a back story of the freighter folks. Hopefully, we'll get to see all of their back stories, including Charlotte's, even though it seems she will no longer be on the show except for  flashback/flash-forwards.

This particular episode was Miles-centric. We get to see when he first had his "I talk to dead people" experience. However, this wasn't the first time we were introduced to Miles' mystical power. In Season 4's episode of Confirmed Dead, we find out that he would talk to spirits by using a portable vacuum. Sort of like being a Ghost Buster except no catching of Slimer, just talk to him and find out where they would stash their drug money. Which in this episode we find out that Miles is all about the money. Either being legit as a spiritualist or not, money was his sin. After he passed the audition that Naomi tested him on, he was willing to go to the island for $1.6 million dollars. Then when he finds Ben, he tries to blackmail him for $3.2 million. Like I said, all about the money.

05x13 - Miles visits his mom on her death bed. 
What's up with the hairdo though? Really! I guess that's the only way to make him look younger. Anyway, he visits his mom and wants answers to why he has his strange powers and also to find out about his dad. She tells him that he died a long time ago while he was a baby. But we know that was a lie, because we later find out in this episode that Pierre Chang, aka Marvin Candle, aka Edgar Halliwax, aka Dharma video instructor is his douche of a father. 

05x01 "Because You Left" - Baby Miles. 
My theory about this baby being Miles in the beginning of the season was correct. Remember how Miles told Charlotte that it was weird that she wanted to leave after trying so hard to get back on the island, during the time when Faraday was  taking people to the freighter in Season 4's "There's No Place Like Home part 2". So, now we find out that Miles and Charlotte were both raised on the island pre-Oceanic 815 crash.  

05x13 - Dead body at the Swan Station. 
His name is Alvarez who was digging a hole at the Swan Station construction site. I guess he got too close to all the electromagnetism that was at that station, because apparently his filling got pulled from his mouth and went out via his skull. Ouch, that's a messed up way to go. 

05x13 - Hurley's version of The Empire Strikes Back. 
Since it's 1977, Hurley decided to help out Star Wars mogul, George Lucas in creating the sequel to Star Wars: A New Hope. So, Hurley is writing the script for The Empire Strikes Back with a couple of things here and there to make it better. The pairing of these two in the last couple of episodes was good. Brought in humor, and also some emotion with Hurley giving Miles advice on what to do about is father issues by using the relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Best line though was "You're just jealous my power's better than yours" and "let's face it, Ewoks suck dude." I didn't know they were Heroes. BTW, loved the title of this episode "Some Like it Hoth". HAHA! 

05x13 - Pre-Orchid Station. 
04x12 "There's No Place Like Home part 1" - Post Orchid Station. View of the greenhouse area of the Orchid Station when Ben was turning himself in to Martin Keamy and his mercenaries.
04x13 "There's No Place Like Home part 2" - Outside view of the orchid station when Jack and Sawyer were on the rescue mission to get Hurley from Ben and Locke. 
05x05 "This Place is Death" - Post Orchid station during the time jumping that Sawyer and the gang were doing. This was before they found the well so Locke can jump in to it and turn the donkey wheel.

05x13 - Chang and Miles in the van during the the ride to Radzinsky at the Swan Station. 
Good thing Hurley was in the van during the trip to Radzinsky. He's great at being the ice breaker for awkward silent moments. We get to find out that Pierre Chang prefers Country over Jazz. He also didn't realize that there were "circles" within Dharmaville. And then Hurley sets up a beer date. "How awesome would that be?"

05x13 - Pre-Swan Station View #1. 
05x13 - Pre-Swan Station View #2.  Looks like that's where the entrance will be when Jack, Locke & Kate go down in during the beginning of Season 2. 
05x13 - "Quarantine" hatch door where Hurley sees his favorite numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. The guy stamping them on the hatch door referred them as the serial number. Hopefully we'll get more insight to the numbers before the series is done. 

05x13 - Who does this guy Bram work for, Ben? We know that Naomi was recruited by Matthew Abaddon who worked for Charles Widmore. And that Naomi is the one that recruits all the freighter folks. But who is Bram? And how does he know about the question, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" If you know the answer, you will be ready to go to the island. If Miles would've went with Bram instead of Naomi, he would've found out more about his gift and his father. Plus he would be on the winning side.   

05x13 - Scientists from Ann Arbor have arrived, and they're in black jumpsuits. "Hey Miles, long time no see", says Faraday.   

So, on a side note. Who's hotter. Kate or Juliet? 
When this show first started, I always had a thing for Kate. But since the beginning of Season 4 up to now, I'm particularly liking Juliet more. I don't know if it was all that sweat glistening off her chest when she was walking around the island with Sawyer during the time jumping. Or maybe when she was on Gia with Angelina Jolie. 

SO... (here are my thoughts) 
1) "What happened to the body?", asks Miles. "What body", replies Dr. Chang. I think they brought the body to the Orchid Station so they can teleport Alvarez back in time before he died.  
2) Dharma video that was shown during Comic Con 2008. I think that Miles and Faraday are the ones filming the video of Chang. During the preview of the next episode, it showed Radzinsky and few others in black jumpsuits with AK-47's. Coincidentally, the season finale's 2 hour episode is called "The Incident". This definitely isn't the same time frame when Ben commits the purge on Dharma, but could be the incident that was mentioned on the blast door by Radzinsky and Kelvin.  

That's all I have for now. Until then, Namasté!

Filed under  //   LOST  

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Paintball Weekend

Past weekend was fun and tiring at the same time. Went to two different paintball parks with family. Good times.
 
Saturday - Paintball action at Velocity in Ramona. Weather was tolerable. Played for almost 4 hours, and had a very good time laying paint on biotches. Can't wait for my next time out to Velocity.

Sunday - Went to Jungle Island in Lake Elsinore. Forgot my camera though. Weather was excruciating. But overall experience was fun. Had a good time blasting paint on fools. Had 10 kills on one field. Can't wait for the next trip.
http://www.jungle-island.com/jihome.asp

Filed under  //   PAINTBALL  

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