Okay, I made it through Comic-Con 2010. Technically, Comic-Con ended Sunday. It took me this long to recover from all the walking, waiting, and flying.¹

For those of you that don’t know, Comic-Con International is one of the largest comic/sci-fi conventions in the world. It’s a magical place where you pay money to stand in lines for hours and wait to see famous people talk and answer questions for fifteen minutes.

On the first day I decided to try and get into Hall H, the biggest conference room in the San Diego Convention Center. Here is a picture from the very back of the line at about eight in the morning.

The line goes to the end of the grass field, turns a corner, goes down the other side, then across a street into another winding line before finally getting to the building. If I had to guess, I’d say there were several thousand people lined up.

After about two hours, I made it to the part of the line that had tents. It was roughly another two hours before I finally made it into Hall H, where I camped for the rest of the afternoon. I totally missed the Tron Legacy panel by about two hours, for which I had lined up in the first place.

It wasn’t all waiting in lines. Don’t get me wrong, it was a LOT of waiting in lines, but I sat in on some really interesting panels. The two best panels I attended were the ones on Penn & Teller and Blood Factory. Penn and Teller were hilarious. The Blood Factory is a project to produce short (5~10 min) horror films by Danny DeVito, amongst others. The films are extremely graphic, bloody, and funny. Plus, as was stated during the panel, they do have messages. Although, those messages may be obscured through blood and vagina monsters (don’t ask, you have to see it when it comes out). Let’s face it, if you’ve been watching anime for any period of time you’ve seen some type of vagina monster. It shouldn’t be anything new.

I also saw the first episode of the Iron Man anime. It wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that good either. Judging by the trailer for the show, it should get a bit better later, on the action front. Who knows about the story?

San Diego was fun. I’ll have to visit again someday. There was talk about moving Comic-Con to another city because San Diego’s convention center doesn’t have the capacity for the current crowds at Comic-Con. I can attest to this. It was packed all day every day of the event. The longest waits were for the big name panels like Burn Notice, Tron Legacy, or just to get into one of the big convention rooms like Hall H or Room 20 where they had the best lineups. The smaller panels usually didn’t have huge lines, and in most instances were more entertaining with more unique subjects.

Also, I got a sunburn.

–

1. No, that’s a lie. I’m just lazy.

I was talking with a co-worker the other day about nescient youth and eventual bumpy rise to a professional career.  I’m probably one of the youngest among my team of co-workers and even the larger organization. I’ve always felt older than I am. So, it’s a bit odd to be surrounded by people who have two or three times the life experience. In some cases, those co-workers have decades more work experience (in the same field), than I.

While talking to my fellow worker, it happened that we had similar stories about working our way through university, about leaving friends behind, and about moving forward. One striking similarity came up that has stuck with me, from that conversation. Neither of us had anything we could consider a mentor or role model.

At the time, when I was younger, it never occurred to me that I needed someone to offer direction.  In my mind I was capable enough. I knew the direction I wanted to go, and I was headed that way. Be that as it may, looking back on my younger days I can’t really say that I was all that directed or all that motivated. Explicitly, I lacked any real direction or drive. It was something I had to find later.

It isn’t like I’m all that experienced now, either. There are differences, though. I have more history, knowledge, and have grown much since that time. As a youth, I lived life as it was presented to me and mistook making choices of the options given to me as directing my own path. But, flowing through life like the winding trails of rain water is not to be mistaken for making important life decisions. It is a childish way of living.

Now that many of the decisions that I had made as a younger me have largely played out their resultant effects. I can reflect on the outcome. The time spend wisely and wasted is clearly visible to me know.  The bad decisions as well as the good are so much more distinct from each other. More than anything, I’ve come to the point that I know that there is so much more that I don’t know. Truly understanding that concept took too long in my opinion.

Now, I can honestly say, I wish I had a mentor when I was younger. I really do. My pride, probably, would have never let me say something like that not too long ago. For a time, I saw my solo adventure through colleges, jobs, and relationships as a badge of honor. Those things were a testament to my talent and drive. It was a big “fuck you” to all those people who tried to hold me back or didn’t think I could do it.  I can see that it merited very little for me.

Life is all about choices. One absolutely has to make those choices on their own, or it isn’t really worth living. Life is also about making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and using that knowledge later. However, it isn’t a bad thing to have a map of the possible troubles along life’s routes.

That’s what a mentor should be. They are the map. Not necessarily, a map of the route from A to Z. They are a map for any direction or road you wish to take. They can tell you were the bridges are or where the rivers run. You can visit the mountains or the plains, and your map will help you get there. It can’t and won’t tell you the best way or the only way, but it will help get you there.

The younger me really wishes for a mentor.

Last time on How to H, we learned about enemies. This post has nothing to do with that.

At some point in your life someone told you that everyone is special in their own way. The thought was reassuring because it meant that conformity was impossible. Yet, the drive to be the same or similar to those around you was so strong that to some degree you complied. Maybe, it was wearing a certain style of clothing. Maybe, it was using a certain style of slang. Maybe, it was an attitude.

Most people are more utterly similar than they are different.

Perhaps, it’s our differences that make us “unique.”

But, it’s our similarities that make us human.

-

I’m a little behind on these posts, since the goal was to do about one per episode. I’ve still got B Gata H Kei episode 8 to do. Episode 9 is currently in the backlog.

Oddly enough, it was the lack of pants that originally turned me off of this show. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were.  Strike Witches has so many gimmicky aspects that I figured there was no way an interesting story lay underneath.

Let’s list them out, shall we:

1. No pants – girls don’t wear pants or dresses. Sometimes, they go commando (I’ve noted, that I approve of this).
2. All girl/witch defense force
3. Mysterious non-human invincible enemy, kinda’
4. Girls with guns, big guns
5. Girls with magical powers
6. Girls with magical animal ears/tails
7. Striker units

I mean, really?

I wasn’t all that wrong, either. While the plot is fun and the characters are entertaining, the story isn’t very interesting. It’s fairly predictable.

Oddly enough, it was the lack of pants that brought me back to this show. It was intriguing. Where are the pants? What did they do with them? Is it a war-time conservation effort? I imagined that it may be necessary to use the fabric for army uniforms.

If the answers to my questions were presented in the show, I can only surmise that the reason I didn’t take that in was because I was preoccupied with fluffy tails and big guns.

We’ve been moving along rather nicely in our H-studies.  Last time we talked about centering our ero-power. This will come in handy because our next topic will be both physically and mentally challenging. In battle the only way to survive is to keep your head about you.

Enemies:

You need an enemy.

There absolutely has to be someone that can oppose you in all things. It must be a rival, a nemesis, that can beat you. Not all the time, though. You must find an enemy that will push you to grow further when you are defeated, and someone that will not back down when you are wallowing in your inevitable victories.

Finding an enemy:

All great powers have equally great enemies. Honestly, without great enemies, great powers are only half as great. Superman has Lex Luthor. Batman has the Joker. Tom has Jerry. The United States had the Soviet Union. The list goes on and on.

You’ll note that my list is somewhat lacking in anime characters. The problem with anime characters is that, individually, they are usually their own worst enemies.  This is actually closer to reality. It is usually our own self-doubts and fears that oppose us. Those are usually the hardest hurdles to cross.

But, saying your foe is yourself is a cop-out. How are you supposed to aspire to great H-ness without a viable archenemy? You aren’t, that’s how. You need somebody to push you along the path of overcoming those internal struggles. That’s the purpose of a arch-rival.

It’s not as easy as it seems to find and keep a nemesis. Here are some rules:

1. You don’t have to hate them, but it helps.
2. Opposites attract, but similarities conflict more.
3. Don’t win too often, let them win sometimes, too.
4. Don’t lose too often, fight dirty if you must.

It may be a good idea to put up some ads in the classified section of your newspaper or on some match making websites. You can also put up an archenemy application form on your blog.

Combat:

You don’t take your archenemy out for a Sunday brunch. Well, that is, unless you are planning to defeat them in an epic all you can eat tea and cakes battle (actually, that’s a pretty good idea).

Not everyone will fight their enemy in a one-on-one physical conflict. Some will face their opposition in a battle of wits. How you fight is not as important as the interaction.

In any case, fighting with your enemy is the only interaction you should have with them. This is important, because if you start to get to know your enemy, you may find out that they are driven my the same things that drive you. You may find that they are only superficially different from you.

You may like them. We can’t have that.

Winning:

Most people will say that winning “gracefully” is the proper way to win. It’s just good manners.

However, that’s just not fun. If you win, rub it in. Pour a little salt on the wound. Do a little victory dance.

-

That reminds me, I need to practice my victory dance. More How to H next week.