{"id":32,"date":"2003-07-27T22:06:00","date_gmt":"2003-07-28T02:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=32"},"modified":"2005-12-04T08:16:27","modified_gmt":"2005-12-04T13:16:27","slug":"land-of-pleasant-living-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/land-of-pleasant-living-part-1","title":{"rendered":"Land of Pleasant Living, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a week since I got back, but I’ve been way too busy to write about my mini-vacation to San Diego (7\/16-7\/20). The publicity work for the new book<\/a> has sorta taken over my life. Now, all the review copies are sent out, and we’re starting to get some advance blurbs (including one that came in just an hour ago from Booklist<\/em><\/a>). Next week, I’ll be making a ton of flyers to send out to independent bookstores all over the country. This weekend, to “relax,” I painted the walls of the “Voyant Nerve Center,” a room that was previously the bedroom of the daughter of the last tenant; the walls were pink. It’s taken me two months to find the time, but at last the walls are painted (poorly, but painted) a dark green. Pix to follow.<\/p>\n

So I went on vacation. Now, one thing to know about me is that only once in my life have I taken a flight that didn’t involve work or my family. So I was looking forward to this jaunt to see my buddy Ian out in San Diego, recently returned from the war. He was aboard the USS Valley Forge<\/a> (which I did <\/em>get to tour, but did not <\/em>get to take any pictures of, since I would’ve been beaten into a pulp for doing such a thing), a cruiser upon which he helped coordinate the Aegis<\/a> weapons system.<\/p>\n

I wanted the opportunity to catch up with my friend, but I also wanted to hedge my bets. If some “situation” came up, I figured Ian might have to put in extra time on the ship, so I timed the trip to coincide with the San Diego Comic-Con<\/a>, geekfest extraordinaire. Another good friend of mine, Tom Spurgeon<\/a>, was coming into San Diego for the Con, so I figured I could spend some time with him, too.<\/p>\n

Over-planning complete, I dumped about 3 gigs of music into the iPod and headed to San Diego. I was stuck in a window seat for the flight, next to some middle-aged white people who wore name tags that read, “Give God Glory.” Sitting right behind them was cartoonist John McCrea<\/a> (on the left in this picture, with the dyed devil-horns). We chatted a little after landing. I remembered reading some of his UK comics back when I was in college, which made him feel a little old.<\/p>\n

At the airport, Ian and I met up, and headed out for a late dinner (subjective time was around midnight; 9pm locally) at the Turf Club<\/a>. Here, you order cuts and the staff brings it to you raw. There’s a big grill in the middle of dining area, and you put your steaks on it and cook it as you like. Which was fun, especially after 6 hours on a plane, and a couple of G&Ts in you.<\/p>\n

The next day, Ian worked from 6am-3pm, while I geeked out over at the Con with Tom, his brother Whit<\/a>. I saw plenty of people dressed<\/a> (you don’t know how disappointed I am that this link doesn’t have any pictures) as Klingons, Stormtroopers, Jedi Knights, Elves (replete with pointy ears), Wolverine, and a couple of guys dressed up like Neo from that bullshit new Matrix movie. There was also a hot girl who had no top, but painted a pair of suspenders on herself. I have no pictures of that, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

I’m tired, and will write more tomorrow. I think the paint fumes are getting to me, a little.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a week since I got back, but I’ve been way too busy to write about my mini-vacation to San Diego (7\/16-7\/20). The publicity work for the new book has sorta taken over my life. Now, all the review copies are sent out, and we’re starting to get some advance blurbs (including one that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Land of Pleasant Living, part 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5175,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-april-2-2010","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: April 2, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's post-April Fool's Day Unrequired Reading! The only joke I fell for was the one about how LSU was going to install a purple turf for next season. Now go read some of my carefully curated links! Oy, with the meta-linking! * * * I know some chili that's given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":673,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-was-built-on-water-and-my-walls-are-of-fire","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":1},"title":"I was built on water and my walls are of fire","author":"Gil","date":"October 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I tellya, if I wasn't about to head out for Madrid for the CPhI\/ICSE conference, I'd be all over ChillerFest here in NJ. I mean, where else would I be able to see Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Karen Allen, Elvira, and a bunch of extras from Night of the Living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Madrid"","block_context":{"text":"Madrid","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/madrid"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/secret-identity","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":2},"title":"Secret Identity","author":"Gil","date":"December 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"At the conference on Wednesday, I passed by a small group of attendees from the Ukraine. We all have our nationalities listed on our name badges. Even if they don't get our names right (my press badge read \"Mrs G Roth\"), they always get our countries right.There were two men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brussels"","block_context":{"text":"Brussels","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/brussels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1072,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/showtime","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":3},"title":"Showtime!","author":"Gil","date":"August 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We spent Tuesday \"down the shore\" with my brother, his wife, and their two daughters. Ostensibly, the trip was about introducing my nieces to the ocean and having a little vacation-within-a-vacation. But there were vital issues of man's relation to the infinite that needed to be settled. So we went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6160,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/how-i-misspent-my-summer-vacation-2011-edition-day-5","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":4},"title":"How I Misspent My Summer Vacation, 2011 Edition: Day 5","author":"Gil","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday, Aug. 15: Stanley Park Death March Sorry it's been so long without an update! I help throw a big conference every September, and the preparation & anxiety involved tends to preoccupy me. But it wrapped up on Sept. 23 and was a huge success. I wrote most of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "travel"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":855,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/gilgamesh-and-the-genome","url_meta":{"origin":32,"position":5},"title":"Gilgamesh and the Genome","author":"Gil","date":"February 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a blast from the past! Here's a From the Editor page I wrote in March 2000, when I was a newbie on my pharma magazine! Enjoy Nearly 50 years ago, Francis Watson and James Crick uncovered the double-helical structure of DNA. 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