Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Too Many Piercings

Saaaaaaaaan Francisco.

So, APE travelogue.

-Made the drive down to San Jose Friday night, met up with Herr Donkeljohn.
-Crashed.
-Woke up, ate delicious waffles, got ready.
-Missed the train. Played Forgotten Worlds and Sonic the Hedgehog on Don's still-functioning Sega Genesis. Shooting and Fighting.
-Missed the train again. Ate some lunch, decided to walk down to the train station and loiter.
-Rode the train, arrived at APE. It was quickly apparent that I'm not "indy" enough for APE. I knew that long beforehand, but the immediate confrontation with reality drove it home. Don and I basically wandered aimlessly, hoping to find something cool.

for (int i=0; i<999999; i=i+1)
{
LookAtBooth();
SearRetinasWithPoorlyDrawnImagesOfChicksBathingInBlood();
ScrubBrainByThinkingOfBunniesAndDaisies();
MutterUncomfortableSarcasticComment();
MoveToNextTable();
}

Don's quote really summed it up for me: "There's only so far you can get with black and red."

I don't really have problems with goths, I just stick out like a sore thumb when they congregate. It's not that I don't want to talk to them, it's that I'm too square for them to talk to me. Shrug.

So that was the negative.

Positive points:
- I did find some really neat cartoonists who were more in the funny animals (bathed in blood! no, I'm kidding.) genre. I will definitely be checking out their websites.
- Caught the art spiegelman/Franciose Mouly panel, which I really enjoyed. There was a neat discussion of using the whole page of a comic like the old Winsor McKay Little Nemo Sunday comic compositions, rather than just thinking of comics as a sequential group of images. Comics versus storyboarding. Worth the cost of entry.
- We randomly ran into Dan C. Johnson and Don introduced us. Chatted about kids and the iPhone.
- Got Runnerguy a Jim Mahfood sketch (It's coming). We kept stopping by his table and he'd be gone, or eating a burrito, or something. Finally, I just stood posted at his table like a guard at Buckingham Palace until he noticed me. Nice guy.

Highlights from the trip back:
Discarded thong on the street.
Drunken guy swaying and singing in the train station.

In summary, the trip was a success!
Many thanks to Don and family for food/shelter/one-liners!
------------------------------------------
Mission objectives completed: 100%!
Secrets found: 5/5!
You have unlocked a new weapon!