sandiego

I am, by no means, a comic book/science fiction convention novice. I have been to my share of small and medium-sized conventions...mostly all on the East Coast. Those conventions feature smaller crowds, smaller venues, and easier access to various panels and people. So, when I was asked to assist Keith in covering the San Diego Comic-Con I got a bit worried. Not because I couldn't handle the task (I am a TV Squad writer), but because I had heard so much about the convention from previous convention-goers.

So, laptop in hand, I entered the world of SDCC with a bit of trepidation, and excitement. By the end of the day I was just tired, hungry, and wondering where the hell all of these people came from.

%Gallery-28527%

To use a well-worn phrase...Good News, Everyone! Your friends over here at TV Squad are heading on out to San Diego during the last week in July to cover one of the bigger, if not biggest, comic book and science fiction conventions on mainland America and the world. I speak, of course, of ComicCon.

From July 24th through July 27th you'll see us with our TV Squad T-Shirts (and underwear -- viewings of those by appointment) as we join the rest of the throngs attending the convention. At some point we may even be doing a bit of Twittering to find out where you are at the convention so you can find us in order to shake our hands (or, in the case of some of our commenters, punch and kick us) and potentially get some free stuff as well.

The economy got you down, bucko? No prospects for any future employment? Are you just sitting there in your underwear, picking large handfuls of lint out of your bellybutton, while you wait for the phone to ring for the 'Next Big Thing' in your life journey?

Well, turn that frown upside-down, my friend! Hop a plane, train or automobile to San Diego between July 24th and 27th and make your way to your destiny, courtesy of the Dharma Initiative. Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of Dharma, will be at ComicCon during that time to seek out volunteers to contribute to a brand new research project. According to Octagon, the new project will play a vital role in the Initiative's objectives. What those objectives are really shouldn't matter to you. All that should matter is that there are a number of unpaid positions available.

So, tough guy, submit your email address to Octagon and they should be responding to you shortly about their positions. And, if someone should happen to mention the Oceanic Six during your interview, just ignore them. They will be taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible.

With all the emotional goings on at TV Squad HQ, I got to thinking that we've gone way too long without putting names to faces. This doesn't just mean the writers -- I also mean you, the readers!

We'd like to get some idea of the interest level of a TV Squad meetup for fans of TV Squad. Want to meet a bunch of the TV Squad team? Meet with other readers and fans of your favorite shows? How about some chances to win some cool free TV stuff and see some of the latest gear? Well, we want to hear from you so we can start putting it together.

I've got a couple of polls after the jump. Please take the time to answer them and leave comments if you've got other ideas. We all think this would be a great idea and, if the first one is a success, we'll do another one in a different location!

UPDATE: We say San Diego because we'd do it during Comic-Con.

Comic-Con 2007 officially began with Wednesday's "Preview Night" or, as I like to call it, "Get the Lay of the Land So You Don't Get Trampled to Death by a Grown Man in a Pikachu Costume Night."

Over the next couple of days, I'll be covering panels featuring the casts of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and a few of this coming season's most anticipated new shows - Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Chuck among others. You can keep abreast of the latest scoop by following TV Squad's Twitter feed. (You can score a free TV Squad t-shirt if you're in San Diego by finding me via our Twitter feed.) I'll also be posting photos on Flickr and wrapping-up each day with as many posts as I can churn out to keep you, gentle viewers, informed.

You see various contests and whatnot from time to time that will give a fan a walk-on role in a series. The fine folks over at Veronica Mars are the latest to offer up such an adventure. The show has partnered with US Vets to raffle off a spot in one of the final season three episodes.

Should you win, your role will be guaranteed to have some sort of interaction with Veronica, which is nice. You wouldn't want to travel all the way to San Diego only to have the boots put to you by Sheriff Lamb while Kristen Bell takes a lunch break in her trailer. The winner will also get to meet the rest of the cast and crew. Airfare will be provided from any city in the continental U.S. that Southwest serves.

U.S. Vets is a public private partnership working to reintegrate homeless veterans. You can read more about their program on their website, as well as get the form to purchase tickets for the raffle. And if you do win, could you pass along a note to the writing team? I could go for less Veronica/Logan angst, and more Mac and Wallace screen time please.