Hi hi all. Well this is my first X-Files convention, the only other ones I've been to were the Star Trek ones, so bare with me. :) There's a lot of #xf (irc) and personal stuff because I met a lot of #xf members so if you want a more detailed report read Polly's Sacramento thingie because I think her's is better anyway. :) Mine is gonna be *LONG* and boring, but I want to remember this like 20 years from now. :) If you want to read just the convention stuff do a search to "OK The actual convention part" :)
Ok well things didn't get off to a good start for me, instead of
setting my alarm at 6:00am, it was a long drive to Sacramento, about 3
hours from Fremont, I set it to 6:00pm. Ugh, I do that a lot, but
thanks to my Dad, he's a saint BTW for letting me go at all :), he woke
me up in the nick of time. That was ok though because Peapod was late
picking up Puffball. :)
Well I ate breakfast, which was strange for me ;) and waited for
Pea to come. Puff called to confirm that he got her already. Well after
a long time I decided to go answering some mail and was gonna check up
on Miri's new updated web page (http://www.rahul.net/ziggyb/miri) when
I could see a car driving up to my house. Well I was in Windoze (which
is rare, but I didn't feel like loading OS/2) and had trumpet winsock
loaded when all of a sudden it had a GPF. An X-File? If it wasn't
Windoze I would have thought so. ;) Well I was right, it was Peapod in
his Eclipse. It was a really nice looking car, but the back seat was
horrible!!! I felt like Tooms in there. :) Puff was nice enough to
offer to switch off, but since she was so tall (Yinya made a comment
later that day that they make every BIG in Texas ;) with every bump she
would have hit the roof. Well I gave everyone the #xf shirt I made. I
got some nice complements (they were being nice). We got some batteries
for Puff's stereo and then we were off!!!
Well let's say that the Eclipse was a nice looking car from the
outside, but sitting in a minute back seat you could feel every rock
and pebble on the road. :) Ok I'm exaggerating. Well I guess the stereo
noticed it too because when Puff's CD's were playing it would just skip
every few seconds. Another thing we found out was that Puff was a great
shock absorber. :) When we put the thing on her lap, the music went
without a jump. :) Though her taste in music could have been better.
Well we got to the Sacramento Convention Center and my gawd it was
HUGE! The Star Trek conventions I've went to were always in hotels and
stuff, but this thing was MASSIVE! Well we parked right across the
street. Then we looked around for Lyons. Yinya, I think told me that it
was right across the street from the Center. Well it wasn't. :) We
asked a lady that was washing the windows of the cafe THAT WAS ACROSS
THE STREET :) where Lyons was. She saw our T-Shirts and was complaining
because she couldn't go. :) She was really nice and told us where it
was. Well the car was parked in the pay thingie so we just walked
several blocks down to where Lyons was. SEVERAL BLOCKS YINYA!! ;) BTW
Puff I got his Pin number did you take his ATM card? ;)
Well we were the first to be there. We were kinda obvious with our
#xf T-shirts. :) And I just love the way that Pea was asking the lady
if anyone was expecting us, and that we didn't know what their real
names were or what they looked like. :) So we waited. A few minutes
later this HUGE guy came in, and looked lost and confused he took a
look at Pea with his shirt and said Peapod and Ziggy right? And there
we were. Sorry Roo couldn't fight him, he was HUGE!!! I mean he gave
the Jolly Green Giant a run for his money. :) Well we sat down and
waited. Judge printed up our #xf and Honorary GATB badges which were
really cool!! They turned out a lot better then I thought they would.
I of course being stupid put on an Honorary GATB one instead of the
actual one. :) Well I dunno how but Yinya and Pet1 and Pet2? and Goaway
found us. I gave them all badges, they seemed to like it. We ordered up
some food, and talked, got to know each other. I have to admit that I
still didn't know what Yinya's, Pet1, Pet2 and Goaway's names were
until later that day. And even now I don't know what Pet1 and Pet2's
name were, I was to shy and felt a bit stupid to ask again, I have a
really bad thing with names. :( If it weren't for the pictures, I'd
probably forget what they would look like too. :)
Well it was nearing 11am so we were heading off to the Center to
wait in line. Me, Puff, Pea and Judge had to bum a ride because we
walked. Yinya's car had a small back seat and she looked at me and said
something like "Has to be him." :P Hey I'm GA's height so :PPPPPP. :)
But no really I was grateful. Well we got there and waited in line. For
some reason Creation decided to NOT open the doors at 11. We didn't
move for a good 15 minutes. I was gonna give Creation an open mind
after hearing from Miri how bad it was. We all know how judgmental Miri
is ;)
Well after a while we finally started moving. We got in and got
stamped like a piece of beef. :) Ok it was for anti-fraud reasons, I'll
give them that. Well I was right that place was HUGE!!! We went up like
2 floors just to get to were the con was being held.
ACK I just realized that I lost my Con schedule, oh well it was
the autographs and the experence that were important right? :)
Ok we walked into a dark room, for mood I guess. And my gawd it
was pathetic. It was the "dealer room." I've been to Star Trek cons,
the ENTIRE room was fulled with dealers merchandise I mean stuff I've
never seen before, but this? This was three large tables. One for T-
Shirt, one for pictures, one for miscellaneous (mugs, posters,
"Official" Fan club thingie). I mean, ugh, I can't express how
disappointed I was about it. The line just to get pictures was long!!!
Well this lasted for about 5 seconds as we walked into the auditorium.
It was very spacious and the chair were comfortable. Nice carpet too.
:) Well I decided to get the pictures later, didn't want to miss any of
the festivities.
OK The actual convention part
And for those that actually read all of that, I congratulate you.
:) First it was the X-Files Music video, it used clips from the show
and used some of the music that I think was used on the show too. The
only thing I remember about the song was "Controlled by the big red
hand!" I think it was playing when Duane Barry was driving in "End
Game." It was ok.
Then what happened was some... lady ;) came up with stills and
stuff explaining some of the episodes and stuff, like we didn't know
what they were?!? The first frame she showed was the standard X-Files
thingie, Mulder and Scully standing in front of a green light. Leave it
to Creation to have it BACKWARDS! It was SUPPOST to have Mulder on the
left and Scully one the right. Well I took that cue and went to the
dealer room to get pictures.
When I was there I saw a news crew there, some Asian lady in blue,
with a cameraman and the microphone had Fox on it. Anyone in Sacramento
willing to send me that clip? :) Yinya? :) There were other camera
crews that went in and out later.
Well I waited in line, Miri was right, I felt like a cow in a
herd, and yes I MOOOed real loud. :) Hey I was excited. :) Well I did
get a little bit of attention from the #xf shirt and my GATB badge. :)
No offers to buy it from me though. :( Oh well I guess X7 has the honor
of that. :)
The table had the old TV Guide with the X-Files cover, the special
1-3 and 4-6 comics and promo shots. I got pictures and went back. I got
back to about when they were doing the trivia. At first I didn't want
to be on the panel but they were rather pathetic, well I thought so
anyway. :) I was the first one to ask them a question. Mine was "What
was Gillian Anderson's middle name." Well I talked about it with Puff
before I went up there, she reminded me about what it was. The panel
thought that it was Katherine, but that was Dana Scully's middle name.
Well Puff raised her hand and answered it she won a X-File cap, which
she graciously gave to me. :) Oh it's Leigh BTW. :) It wasn't a big
deal the stitching was falling apart anyway and she has a better one
anyway. :) We didn't plan for it to be like that but that's what
happened. :) Also the second panel there was one redhead(?) up there
that I thought I recognized. At first I thought it was a school mate of
mine from a few years back, but I wasn't sure. The second panel did
much better then the first, they won $50 when they answered 4 in a row
and the last question asked was "What was the senior thesis DD wrote at
Princeton." Hehe at first the host was gonna disallow it because that
was an incredibly impossible question, but I just loved it when she
said she knew it to the guy!! We just looked at each other and said
DDEB and Miri. :) Well I went up to her later and sure enough it was
Polly Moller!!! She wasn't wearing her X-File license plate, but I got
a picture of her with that later. :) After that the blooper reel went
on! It was really good!!! We saw the clips that DD took to Leno and
much more! I'm afraid I can't remember any of them now :( but I
wouldn't want to spoil it for those that haven't gone to a convention
anyway. They are good! :) Alas no Scully licking Mulder or Mulder saying "Suck my D***." :(
Well then they showed a clip of Skinner telling Mulder about his
experience in Vietnam. Then they bought in Mitch Pileggi!!!!! This was
his first X-Files Convention, "This is my first one, I'm a virgin so be
gentle" :). It looked to me he was a bit nervous at first, he even
spilled some water on his pants later in the Q&A; thing, and was dancing
around like he needed to go to the bathroom. :) Yeah he was really
different from Skinner, of course! but he had a sense of humor he was
just really.... human! Well another insight is that he signed a 6 year
contract! So the X-Files will live for at least that long yeah!!!!! It
seemed that he signed it at the end of the first(?) season and he
couldn't tell anyone because CC wanted it secret. He also revealed
something about the third season he wasn't supported to. "That the
first two episodes are gonna knock your socks off!" :) And of course
Roo's influence was in all of us. :) Goaway went up and asked, if
Skinner was gonna be in a speedo bathing suit. :) He answered by saying
that he saw a posted on Internet about it and someone replied by saying
that they didn't want to see Skinner in a bath suit. Then some lady
yelled out "Don't wear the speedo!" it cracked the whole crowd up. Then
Pileggi replied, "I'll tell you what I'm staying over at the..." It was
hilarious and it's all Roo's fault. :) Well another lady asked to have
his autograph, and he said "Yeah just you. Cause I like redheads." he
justified it because she had a baby. Someone else asked for a autograph
next and he told him that they were gonna do it later and then he said
that if he did it for everyone right there it would take forever and
that "This sucks." :) He also said that X-Files was gonna be the only
project he had and it was gonna keep him pretty busy.
Well let's say that I got really tired of some of the people that
went up there, they were asking silly questions and this one guy just
kept talking and talking and talking, praising him and the X-Files and
then he admitted FINALLY that someone in front of him had asked his
question. ARG!!! If anyone is reading this and is going to a con, just
remember keep the praise short and ask an "intelligent" question. And
don't ask for autographs!!!
And then I went up and asked him a question about whether he was
felt that he was going to be typecast because he was on a sci-fi type
show, he at first answered "With a sweet face like this?" :) He then
went on to say that he's been in a lot of roles before as bad guys and
killers so... actually he didn't answer my question, but I guess he
feels that he's comfortable with his roles and he isn't worried about
it.
Yeah then he answered a few more questions. He was then told that
was it and went to sign autographs. I forgot to get an extra picture
for Miri so I went back in line for the picture. :( Well I guess it was
a good thing, I met the woman that asked for Mitch's signature on stage
she was really nice and she talked about how nervous she was when she
was that close to him. He signed her convention ticket. She asked about
the GATB badge and laughed. :) Well when I got back to the table again
I noticed that the Mitch's pictures were running out, like 5 left. I
was getting ticked off at Creation again because a guy is coming to
sign autographs and THEY don't have enough pictures?!?!?!?
Well as the line went on we saw that Tom Braidwood!! He was
standing behind Mitch. It was cool. Puff went and stood in front of
them for like 10 minutes just video taping them togehter. :) Well I got
the first signature and then went back in line to get one for Miri.
Puff joined me a little later. It seemed that the Creation guys decided
to cap off the line. I mean, why!?! If Mitch didn't want to sign
anymore autographs or had to leave I'd understand that better then
Creation capping the lines. And the host at the end of the Q&A; even
said that "Everyone will get a signature." Sheesh. Some people went and
got lunch and stuff and when they came back they were told that they
could stand in line. Well some people snuck in line when the guard
wasn't looking. :) More power to them!! At one point I went "Heil
Hitler" to one of those Creation guards. :)
Well anyway in order not to look conspicuous standing in line
again, me and Puff changed clothes a bit. No note like that! You people
are sickos! :) I got her plaid shirt and she gave me the X-File cap
I/she won. She took off her #xf shirt, yes she was wearing something
underneath. Sheesh you people. :) The lady behind us well when she saw
Braidwood she went and got an autograph for her comic. :) It was on the
1-3 one and her husband(?) said that he couldn't see the signature,
well she explained that it was The X-Files and you had to look in order
to find the signature. :) Well her friend came along and had her baby,
he was so cute with his little "X-FILES" t-shirt that she made. :) Well
there's something Creation didn't think of, baby X-File clothes. :)
Also one of the guards walked pass us asking if anyone HASN'T seen the
X-Files. Well it was because she was embarrassed because she was at a
X-Files convention and she hadn't seen the show, I just yelled
"BLASPHEMY" to her. :)
After some waiting I got Mitch's signature again, and told him
that it was for the lady that interviewed him via the phone because she
was at the University of Texas, where he used to go. Well Goaway had
said, well I thought he said, that Miri had interviewed him and put it
on her web page. Well he signed it to Miri and I just wanted to say
sorry for the misunderstanding, to Mitch, to the actual person that
interviewed him. Goaway's home phone number is... ;)
Ok after that I ran back to my seat, went and got a GATB Badge and
Tom's photo. I went and asked for his signature and presented him the
badge, on behalf of the GATB. He said that he was gonna put it on his
wall!!! :) :) :) :) :)
Well Pea and the others got him to sign on their #xf badges and
GATB badges. :) I think Go told him that he was the bot on #xf. :) Even
though I could have sworn Go said he was the 'bod' on #xf. :) He's just
not very clear when he tells people things. :) It was really nice of
him to sign before his actual sign thingie.
Ok went back, it seems that we missed the reel about X-Files in
the News and the X-Files auction. No biggie.
Ok Tom Braidwood was next. He talked about that he was actually
the First Assistant Producer on the show and the Frohike thing was an
accident. I won't tell ya what it is because I wouldn't want to spoil
it for you if you do go to a con with Braidwood. :)
Well he does know what happens in the next season, and no he
wouldn't tell us. :) He didn't know at the Seattle con, so he just must
have recently gotten the info. He talked about the Emmy nominations,
but he was disappointed about not getting the "Best short actor in a
supporting role" nomination. :) He was also disappointed about not
getting the best art department, because they shot just about
everything in Vancouver and desert and arctic scenes are like,
incredible!! to me anyway. When I first saw the Arizona scenes I was
totally fooled. He also talked about how they took 300 sticks of TNT
and blew open a rock quarry for the boxcar and painted it with 3000
gallons of paint, painted the thing! :) Well the tape stopped after his
introduction. :( I miscalculated how long it would be, ack. Oh well, I
asked him a question about how he felt about the loss of the Morgan and
Wong team, and he said that he had worked with them before on 21 Jump
Street? and that he was happy for them for getting Space: Above and
Beyond and he thinks that the new writers will do fine but he doesn't
know any of the new writers so we'll ALL just have to see.
Well Doug Hutchison was next, and what can I say, he was GREAT!!!
Of course Creation got the clip they play before the guests are up
wrong. They were showing a clip of Brad Dourif as Luther Lee Boggs,
they just decided to give up in finding his tape and put him on. He was
funny and he didn't look like he did in Tooms. I mean he had long hair,
oiled I think, he was in shorts and made a joke about "Where are my
pants!" :) He was also in a leather jacket. He was really cool, really
funny and he talked about how he got the job as Tooms, how hard the
lines were :) and just everything!! He was a great story teller!! I
felt guilty about not going up there and asking a question, I mean I've
only seen him on 2 episodes. Well he did go on about writing to CC
about getting Tooms back on X-Files. :) And right up front he said that
he was sorry that he couldn't stay longer and that the absolutely last
flight back to HollyWeird, as he called it :) was at 5:30 and that he
had to go then. He did give us his agent's address so we could write to
him and get his signature that way, and to send comments, anything,
even alien recipes. :) Well I saw that the question line wasn't as long
as for the other two guests but he made up for it by answering in long
funny stories, I mean about how he got the part, how he was put into
that goo, his love life. :) Everything it was just great and funny has
hell!!! When he was asked questions he repeated them, I guess because
in Seattle the sound system was terrible, here they were using the
Center's sound system and it was great!! You could hear every word.
He also asked that all the guest should say to ask good questions
:) well he didn't bluntly say don't ask dumb questions but don't ask
stuff like what his age is, actually now that I bring it up, what is
his age? :) He was just great and telling you anything about the Q&A;
session would just spoil it for the rest of you that are going!!
Well after Creation told us to stay in our seats and that we would
be getting signatures row by row. Well that worked miserably, I
actually stayed in my seat, the gullible bonehead I am, and waited to
be called on, when just about everyone else just got up and got a
signature. :( Well when they finally got to my row I went to the line
where they said that people wanting both signatures should go to. Well
as it turns out that line was ONLY for Braidwood's signature. :( Well
I got his signature again on my GATB card. :) I think his fingerprints
are still all over it. :) and then went into the other line which of
course was CAPPED OFF by the Creation guards. :( Well I sneaked into
line with Puff and we waited. They played the DD and GA interviews and
we waited. At the end the Host was just telling people not to say hi
and to just get their signature and go. He said it in a joking manner
so I guess I shouldn't hate him too much. Well Tom he didn't. :) He was
still talking to people, posing for people, he even hugged and kissed
pet1. :P Yeah Yinya and Pet1 sucking up all of OUR time. :P I dunno
whether or not to hate him because he didn't get to sign my picture or
not to hate him because he was personalizing everyone else's! Oh well
I'll just hate Creation and send Tom a picture and a letter for him to
sign. :)
Well after that it was closing time, I went outside to see if I
wanted the T-shirt or any of the other stuff. The T-shirts were all
bland and colorless, and I just didn't like them. And they were all
BLACK. For those of you living in California or a sunny state, you know
that black is not a good color to wear in the summer. :) Oh well I'll
just go and put some of Cynical's art on WHITE t-shirts :) They look
much better anyway and it's about the same price I would pay for a
Creation T-Shirt. :) Um, I didn't really care for the mugs, the posters
I can get at the Warehouse for the same price, ok, maybe more, but I
was getting tired of giving money to Creation. I did get one poster
that I couldn't get anywhere else, it was a yellow one with plates of
Mulder and Scully's faces stretching off into nowhere, and "Watch the
X-Files" on the bottom. I'm not sure exactly because I haven't unrolled
it yet and I don't want to touch it again till I get a hanger. :) Well
I was just about to join the "official" x-files fan club but wouldn't
you know it, they ran out. I think the Creation guy was getting worried
because I had an X-Files shirt that I made myself and he asked weather
or not I was selling them. :) Hehe frankly I think my shirt look better
then Creation's. :) Oh if you want the art for the shirt I wore its at
my ftp site (ftp.rahul.net:pub/ziggyb/xfcardb.jpg) He also asked me to
write down my URL and Miri's URL so they can put it on Delphi's web
page. Hmmm well there was a catch, I had to put Delphi's on mine to, I
might. ;)
Well after that I wanted to go see the prop show, but they closed
it. :( So I have to live vicariously through Polly Moller's report.
Polly, TELL ME MORE!!! :)
OK I'm sorry but I won't make copies of my audio tape or my
friend's video to anyone I don't know, I just don't like giving
strangers my home address. With the news about kids being lured to
other states when they meet people over AOL or other online services,
I hope you'll understand my reasoning. Though if there were another way
I'd love to make copies for those of you that just can't make it to a
con. I'm sorry, that's how I feel and please don't write and ask for
copies, but I'll be happy to answer any other questions. :) You can
find me on #xf on IRC, I'm ZiggyB, or my mailing list,
[email protected].
If you'd like to join the mailing list write to
"[email protected]" and in the message body write
"subscribe x-philes-xf" If you want to know what the list is about go
to my web page at http://www.rahul.net/ziggyb forgive me but I'm not
done with it yet so it doesn't look great at the moment, but all the
info is there.
Ok after the convetion we begged Judge :) to come with us to
dinner. We went to TGI Fridays I guess and well we ate dinner. :) We
also talked a lot about, you guessed it IRC. We just talked and talked
and talked. I found out what the heck Yinya ment. It was so cute how
she got it. :) It was GREAT! It was so much fun. I also most didn't
want it to end. But alas it did. Of course Yinya and Pet1 and Go were
such goof offs. I mean in the car making faces, sheesh so childish for
their age :)
We dropped off Judge, Puff hugged him. Nec, go exsanguinate him :)
Pea then took us to Virtual World, I think just so he could show
off, the Techs there were so impressed with the fact that he broke 20k
in Red Planet... sheesh Pea you happy now? :) Well I pummeled you in
Mechwarrior so there. :)
Well we finally got back to my house about about 1am. We came on
#xf and no one wanted to know what happened. :P Kug and Rose were
taking about JERRY ON SUNDAY... AGAIN! Ick, oh well Miri came and saved
the night. :) Thanks again Miri. :) I then went and crashed, I was way
tired but it was so much fun!!!! Can't wait to go to the San Jose one
in October!!!
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