SDCC 2016 - The (late) Highlights Reel

So I'm finally getting back into a post-SDCC, post-Nerdfest!, post-GISHWHES routine - just in time for me to move in to a new place... Yup. That's how I roll.

San Diego Comic Con was super fun this year, as always, and this was the first year in many that I didn't spend an inordinate amount of time waiting in line.  There were a couple of monster lines that I partook in, but it wasn't something I faced every time I wanted to walk through an entryway.  Signs of things to come? I can only hope.  If it goes back to being Line Con instead of Comic Con, I may follow through with my yearly threat of calling SDCC quits and instead focusing on the smaller cons.

I decided this year to focus on smaller panels instead of sitting in Ballroom 20 all day or watching the fall season TV pilots.  The only big panel I hit was the Netflix Marvel Luke Cage presentation - the only time I spent in Ballroom 20. It was a fantastic panel, and I can't wait until Luke Cage comes out. (And I walked in during the panel before it without waiting in any line - awesome sauce!).

So here is the highlights reel:

• Harley Quinn frappuccinos at the Starbucks
  
• Subjecting my carpool (San Francisco to San Diego) to my Bollywood soundtracks collection
• New Authors panel
• All of the books by these new authors looked really interesting, particularly Rebel in the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton.  The other authors included: Sylvain Neuvel, Todd Lockwood, Keira Drake, Bob Proehl, and K.S. MerBerth 
•  The "You got science in my fiction" panel which included a bunch of fun sounding novels by J. Patrick Black, Blake Crouch, Christopher Farnsworth, Patrick Hemstreet, Leah Thomas, and of course Andy Weir (author of The Martian).
• Mars Needs People: Putting Humans on the Red Planet
• A great panel on NASA's and the general aerospace industry's mission to send humans to Mars - including the building and testing of the SLS
• Hollywood to Bollywood via Dubai panel
• Meeting Frank Beddor (author of The Looking Glass Wars and Hatter M)
  
• Spending a night in line.... something I told myself I would never do. In my defense, I made up for it by not waiting in pretty much any other lines the whole weekend.
• Getting mistaken for an industry professional by Marjorie Liu (Name of the Rose)
• Writer's Journey panel on "Maximizing Your Exposure in the Marketplace"
• The big take away from this panel being that if you wait until you have a product to sell, than you waited too long to start marketing yourself
• Trek Talks: Star Trek and NASA Boldly Go panel
  
• Being there for release of the new CASIS ISS Mission Patch (it has Rocket and Groot on it!)
• Fangirl Foods - an awesome panel with Chef Duff Goldman of the Food Network and Cake Masters
• An amazing panel on the links between personality and reactions to pop culture characters called "Bam! Whack! Boom!: Psychological and Personality Influences on Pop Culture."  
• This one was so interesting I may do a fuller write up of it later once I've read more into the research that's been conducted so far. 
•  Talking with some of the scientific and engineering minds behind the 'Journey to Mars' panel at their booth in the main exhibit hall
• Meeting the artist Anway Sahar
• Imaginarium Gallery booth:
• I went owning 1 little dragon, and walked away from that weekend with a whole menagerie (pictures to come.... maybe). >_> 

Until next time, Comic Con!