TENTHCREWMEMBER'S BLOG

TenthCrewMember

Alan Tudyk trumps my geekout moment!
Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Hey FFFers!

It's been a while since I've been regularly dancing about this site like butterflies or scraps of wrapping paper in the wind, but I'm back now.

It was folks like Wiccanslyr, Kaylee4Simon and CallMeSerenity who reminded me why I did what I did here from the beginning. Browncoats are the best fans in the 'Verse, bar none. Period. End of story. Browncoats have always made me feel welcomed and respected and even loved. Y'all are the best, and here, I've seen the best. Not saying anything is wrong with forlks on the OB or gossi's boards, but here I feel all of you make this a home. I like that. Thank you.

And now that I have the blubbering out of the way, I can go on to the stroking of my own ego. ;P

Right then, here's the lowdown:

I am at my first Dragon*Con ever. And the first Con I've been to of any type or size in almost 15 years. I am here for one reason. Firefly. And my wife wanted to go. So two reasons. OH! and I'm a gamer...so that too. Okay 3 reasons!!! So sue me. Anyway, onto the meat of the story...

So here I am, dressed up as Wash (yeap! I did! I am that "focused" a fan!), and I just paid my $20 to get an autograph from Alan Tudyk on a blown up image of one of the BWAH! cards I made. And I have been a Tudyk fan since I first saw him in Knight's Tale (yes, that means I am NOT one of those who saw Firefly on T.V.) and I am about to go fanboy...I admit it...I was...and I am large semimuscular man enough to admit it. :P

Back to the point now. So Alan is getting his picture taken with the person in line in front of me, and as he sits down, I place the big BWAH! card on the table and he just stops and stares at it. Now mind you, they were trying to hurry us through the line because Alan and Summer had a panel at 5:30 (which I made it to, btw!) and it is currently 5:10. He looks over the whole card and says "Whoa." I tell him it's from my card game and he asks if I want him to sign it. To quote my 4 year old "Well, DUH!", so I say yes as this obvoiuosly is not an actual card but an enlarged copy. At this point he looks up.

Remember how I said I was dressed AS Wash? Right, so I guess I was one of the few he saw that first day, or maybe the best he saw that day, because he looks up and takes hold of my Hawaiian shirt! He's looking at it, at my jumpsuit, even at my messenger bag I was carrying with FIREFLY on it and all my Firefly buttons. And he's just staring at me...so I manage to say something like "Thank you for all your work." and then he says "Thank yo-you're welcome. We really loved doing it." and I'm thinking "OMG. Is Alan geeking out over me and my card game and the costume and..."

Okay, so now, he goes to sign it, and asks who to make it out to. So I tell him "TCM" and tell him it is short for TenthCrewMember. So he writes

TCM,

and pauses. I reckon I broke his paradigm of the "sign this pic with this, sign that pic with that" because he shakes his head with a smile and writes

Shiny!

and then signs it. And I thank him again. He says it was his pleasure. And I move on down to Summer who had a much smaller moment when she saw her BWAH! card (movie version) and simply exclaimed "WOOOOW!" and signed it.

So now it is day 2 at D*C, and I mention to Wiccy (short for Wiccanslyr) that I am thinking of giving my original set of BWAH! cards to Alan because he seemed so entralled with his card. She proceeds to give me the set she printed out so I don't have to give up my master set. How cool is that? So, I've made up my mind and I am going to give him this set of cards.

I figured it would be too tacky to try and do it at the panel, so I would catch him at the Wake for Wash and Book. Missed him by a hair. Undeterred, I tagged along with Wiccy on day 3 to the Walk of Fame again and stood in line for hours, but this time to give something to Alan instead of getting something. Coincidentally, day 3 was scheduled to be my pirate costume day, which someone remarked looked kinda like Steve the Pirate and I never planned that, it just sorta came to be that way. So now I'm thinkning "Great. Alan is going to think I am some weird stalker fan now...great." But I remained stalwart and stayed in line.

Finally the moment comes. Wiccy gets his autograph, and I take a picture of them. I then hand Alan the red gift bag with the Complete BWAH! in it and I say "This is for you." He pops open the bag (nearly losing the leaf pin I closed it with) and eagerly pulls the card boxes out while going "What is it!?". You would have thought it was his birthday! :) So I tell him as he thumbs through several of the cards, and he looks at me and says, "I *thought* that was you! Thanks! Thanks alot! This is great!". I smiled and said "You're welcome." and moved along so the next person in line could have their opportunity.

Twice! Twice Alan thanked me and got geeky on me! Not the other way around! I am still giddy over the whole experience. He made me feel like I was the important one, not him. He's definately a Big Damn Hero! Best. Moments. Ever. Thanks Alan!

Also, some of my fellow SOB's (Southern Ohio Browncoats) gave Alan and Summer an HONORARY SOB sticker I had made for us to stick on folk at D*C we found worthy *grin*. Summer was still wearing it when she went to the panel on Friday!!! How awesome is that! My friend, Gojiro, got a great shot of it. So any of you who were wondering what that white tag was on her dress...now you know!

I'm heading over to the BlueSun Room to post it now...

See you in the world!

TCM (still riding high like a leaf on the wind!)

COMMENTS

Saturday, September 9, 2006 10:36 AM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


You be a lucky sod, TCM...much luckier than I;)

Oh...and welcome back to the fold:D

BEB

Thursday, September 7, 2006 7:53 PM

RESE


I agree with FollowMal -- grinnin' and reading your wonderful description of events -- isn't that what this is all about?

Just trying to show our BDH's how much they mean to us!

Thursday, September 7, 2006 1:43 PM

TENTHCREWMEMBER


It's nice to be dirt kissin' on the nekkid beach I call home...FFF.net! :D

And yeah, it was very cool, I still have goosebumps and it made me happy he was so happy to receive the game.

And thanks for the warm receptions, everyone! I hope to see you at the *NEW* CAPTION TIGHTPANTS game! ;)

Wednesday, September 6, 2006 8:29 AM

SMARTBUTDUMBBLONDE


ooooohh, so jealous...,
but so happy for you!!

Wednesday, September 6, 2006 6:20 AM

MSG


Hey give a BDH's day a lift...that's a day worth having:)

Wednesday, September 6, 2006 5:10 AM

CALLMESERENITY


I never got a chance to meet Summer and Alan. I was too busy all weekend to head over to the autograph lines. Shame on me. But, that is an awesome story. Alan rocks.

And your Wash costume was wonderful! I missed your pirate costume, though!

MAN D*C was awesome this year!

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 8:20 PM

JORJAREYNOLDS


Aww that would have been awesome, I so wish i could of gone. From what everyone's telling me the crew are really shiny friendly people. I'm sure it's a memory you'll never forget.

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 8:10 PM

AGENTRUSCO


That's pretty much amazing.

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 5:34 PM

FOLLOWMAL


I'm so glad you're home. We missed you!

Awesome, that's all I can say. I was grinnin' from ear to ear as I could just see Alan being so geeky over you.
Our BDH's are the best!


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