San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Lessons Part 2
I learned many lessons at Comic-Con, so I felt the need to break them up into a couple of entries to compensate for my lack of work this year. I did learn a lot from this very different convention. So, let us begin the second set of lessons around the idea of exclusives.
There are a lot of companies that release or debut exclusive stuff at the convention. So here is one thing that I have learned. If you want the cool stuff, be ready to camp. Oddly enough, Comic-Con is more than willing to let people camp out at the convention. I personally was not that attached to the idea. Not that I do not like the idea of getting the exclusives, but I had other issues that would have made the pain more than I could bear to deal with trying to get them. So, the lesson is to fix those issues and be willing to camp. People had camping chairs, and there was always a waiting area. I am unsure if they allowed overnight camping, but I know that my friends managed to get there early in the morning, so there was that. Make sure that you can camp out, and you will get the exclusives. Speaking of camping, think about your calorie intake.
Much like any backpacking adventure, you need to eat, and if you do not eat, you will be in trouble. This happened to me. Given the amount of calories I needed to function, I ate way less than I normally would. This was bad as it made my mood pretty crappy when I was not excited about something. I will say that if you can get a good daily intake in one meal, that is the way to go. However, in my case, I needed at least two meals to get that intake. That is just how life was for me. It sucks, but it is true as well. I needed to eat at least two meals to maintain the energy to get along. This meant that if I was not into what was going on, I was cranky, and if I was into what was going on, I would be exhausted after the event; running on pure emotion is a thing. After all, no matter how many conventions I go to, I always forget the amount of walking I do.
Which brings me to a new lesson work out your standing muscles. Again, I have issues that extend beyond that, so there was not much I could do, but I recommend that you try to work this out. I plan to take three months, provided I get into the convention next year, to get in shape. This includes standing in one place for multiple hours. This is what is going to cause you the most pain. Stand until your feet hurt, rest for about an hour, then stand again. Keep doing it until your feet do not hurt. It is possible. Oddly enough, walking, even if I was sore, was nowhere near as bad as just standing around. So get used to the standing. You will likely be doing a lot of it.
The final lesson for today will be to have first aid available. Well, I guess second aid as well. Around the last day, I managed to get some huge blisters on my feet. I am a play-through-the-pain kind of guy, but it slowed me down more than I would like to admit. So I am going to say that you should treat your injuries. This includes icing yourself. I recommend you take advantage of your hotel's ice machines to ice injuries. I acutally slipped on flyer in the dealer room and I think I tore my meniscus. So this is a problem, especially when you need to move stuff up and down stairs. So I would recommend doing some icing of any injuries and your feet to keep things going good and smooth. Trust me crippling yourself for some little bit of fun is not worth it, and you will regret it in the long run.