From a spacious Hilton hotel room in San Diego’s Gaslamp district, I say hello. FREE BROADBAND. That’s what I’m talking about.

I am happy to say that my ears and I survived 2 plane rides today to get here. Woooo, serious head implosions happened when we started to make our descent. And then, for the next hour or so, I was deaf. So much pressure builds in my ears that I can hear very little after a plane ride. I was standing in the convention registration line, hearing nothing but my own head noises, and I plugged my nose and blew. After a high-pitched squeal, my hearing came back in anger.

Nothing remarkable about the plane rides to report. It’s just a different kind of feeling to look down and see the houses and buildings so small, and to know that there are cars and people there, but they are too small to be seen. And of course, there are the mountains and canyons and rivers white with foam.

I’m in California for the big Comic Con. This is the big one. This is the one where the big kids show up. Tonight as Tom (Gaadt) and Steve (Hamaker) and I (Smith) walked back from a Pat & Oscar’s Pizzeria, we passed by STAN “CREATOR OF ALL THINGS MARVEL (along with Jack Kirby)” LEE. You might remember Stan Lee from Mallrats? He gave Jason Lee advice about his relationship with Shannon Doherty. He walked right by us on the sidewalk, talking to the president of Wizard magazine about the history of comics (I think. he mentioned something about DC.) This guy is not long for this world, and he is the creator of some really big heroes (spidey, x-men, hulk, striperella *snicker*). It was cool to see him. Tom wanted to say something cheesy like, “hello, true believer…” but thought better of it, and we thanked him.

Speaking of Tom, I’m already in hysterics about his repoire with Steve. I’m sharing a room with Oscar and Felix. More about that as the weekend goes by.

Tomorrow, I will attend a program about self-publishing, comic book legal stuff, and perhaps a panel with just about the entire cast of Farscape.

Not many photos to share today. Click here to see my photos from today, and if that doesn’t work try clicking here. (I’m using Kodak’s Ofoto service, which is free, but requires everyone to setup a free account to view photo albums.) There is a photo of The Captain and one of me with my favorite sneaker.

More tomorrow!