comic-committment

i think that the nature of my job has made me increasingly commitment-phobic.  because i have to be away so often, when i am home, i have come to need the luxury of changing my mind at the last minute, and with inconsequential fallout.  i might want to participate in that particular activity or event you invited me to, or i might just want to watch tv and go to bed early.  and, since i won't know which of those things i actually want to do until up to two minutes before a decision is required, i find that i have become less and less likely to commit to activities and events which require a firm decision in some advanced time frame.

i give you this background primarily to emphasize what a big day today was.  it was the day that comic-con tickets went on sale - an event that takes place in july.  and i wanted in!

and, if only it were that easy!  but no. comic-con is the largest comic related conference in the world, and it is huge.  over the years it has evolved and become more and more popular, which  i think that can be attributed largely to the presence of well-known celebrities.

while i am not a particular lover of actual comic books, i have long been enamored of the film versions of their print predecessors...with a plethora of superhero tv and movies growing up (x-men has always been a favorite), it is hard not to relate to the genre. in fact, when i think about all the ties i have to this comic con world, there are far to many to count. like the stars.  star wars and trek that is.  and my long time love of fantasy fiction. and syfy televison.  and most things nerdy and or geeky.

couple that 'traditional' comic con legacy with the fact that more and more often popular tv shows and movies are creating comic book versions of themselves, which gives so many more people an excuse to put on their nerd hats, or their storm trooper costumes, as the case may be.  some of last year's panels (all of which included the stars of the show), other panelists, and screenings included: castle (helloooo nathan fillion), dr. who, true blood, chuck, torchwood, big bang theory, the river, eureka, being human (hey sam huntington, let's hang out!), lost girl, stan lee, terra nova, sanctuary, joel mchale, joss flippin' whedon, once upon a time, vampire diaries (how YOU doin'? ian somerhalder), snow white and the huntsman, colin farrell, grimm, fringe, alcatraz, nikita, person of interest, and mythbusters.

and you wonder why i am geeking out?  needless to say, since moving to california, attending comic con has been on my bucket list.  it takes place in july in san diego - a mere hour and a half from my current home, and it just seemed silly not to take advantage of it.  i got on the bandwagon way to late last year, so this year, i started my research early - which paid off.

because it is such a hugely popular event, which without fail, sells out, you have to register for a member id.  anyone can register for a member id, and it doesn't cost anything to do so, but you HAVE to have one in order to have the RIGHT to purchase actual tickets.  and you can only purchase tickets for those with a member id.

i registered my member id a few months ago and i knew that the cut-off for ids was coming soon, so i solicited a few friends i thought might be interested in participating and got one firm taker.  she registered for her id, the registration closed, and on thursday i received an email saying that tickets would be going on sale this morning.

nothing like short notice!  the email announcement included my user id and last name, for ticket purchasing purposes. they had dropped the 'van', no doubt because of the space, but at least i had the 'correct' information.  my friend also provided me her user id so that we wouldn't both have to be sitting at our computer first thing on a saturday morning.

the alarm went off at 7:45 am this morning, giving me just enough time to wake up before putting my happy fingers to work.  the registration link had been provided in the email, so in one window i 'loaded it' and refreshed it a couple of times while in another i copy/pasted it and did the same thing.  at 8:01 am i was in.

i closed the secondary window as the instructions made it clear that if the system found duplicate ip addresses logged on at the same time, you would be kicked off.  but i was in. sort of.

i attempted to enter my log in information and was told that something was not correct.  i was copy/pasting it directly from the email sent to me, and it was not working.  while quashing a major panic attack, just for kicks, i entered my whole last name, space included, and voila, i was the 3,537 person in the virtual line, and boy was i relieved!

am i being over-dramatic?  probably.  but i had done my research, and i knew that by 20,000 people, the 'good' days of the conference would likely be sold out.  i also knew that those 20k people would probably be processed through the system in a matter of two  hours or less.  the comic-con folks had communicated that if your place in line was under 40,000 you would probbaly be able to get 'some' type of ticket, but since you have to purchase for each day you want to attend, the implication was that only the craap days would be left by then.  they had also warned that once you were in 'line' you were going to want to stay there, and depending on your number, you could be 'staying there' for 3-4 hours.  what the heck, i had nothing else pressing this morning.  but perhaps you can see why that '3,537' number was such a relief!

i had selected and purchased tickets for myself and my friend by 8:11am. mission accomplished!

what i would later learn is that the link provided in the email was passing through an analytics site, which got completely bottle-necked.  but, because i had copied the direct link into my browser, i bypassed the analytics and went straight to the registration.  this is still causing major web drama and a lot of complaining, but i don't have a ton of sympathy.  my feeling is that if it's important to you, and you want it badly, you look for alternatives, and, in the immortal words of tim gunn, you make it work.

fortunately, i WAS able to make it work.  it turns out, every ticket was sold out in an hour and twenty-three minutes.  there were roughly 40,000 tickets available, and the last i heard, in that hour and twenty-three minutes, some 210,000 people attempted to get a ticket before they closed the system for good.  needless to say, i am excited!

i wasn't originally planning on dressing up, but since my friend will be going as the tardis from dr.who, i may pull out my own version of amy pond.  we shall see.  but the best news is that i didn't die. committing to something nearly five months from now did not cause me to burst into flames.  so, maybe i will try it again sometime...