UPDATE: I has a table. Look for Bumblebee!
So I’m not gonna have a table at BotCon. I sent in my California sales permit form weeks ago, and it never came in the mail. So after getting turned away at registration, I figger, okay, after putting together my customization class figure, I’ll travel all the way across LA to Van Nuys to get the form in person. No big. Well, SORT of a big. The trip requires three trains and a bus and then half an hour of walking to get to the office. So of course after undertaking this FOUR HOUR TRIP, you get to the office and they laugh at you because the place is only open for a half hour more and they require ten more minutes than that to process your form!
I also asked about the form I faxed in weeks ago, wondering, hey, it might already be processed and I can just pick it up. Ha ha ha, no. It is not processed yet. Obviously, California does not want my sales tax money. I wonder why this state is friggin’ broke.
So you go home, time wasted.
And I sure as hell ain’t doing it again tomorrow morning. I got crap I gotta do!
So, I guess, I am not meant to have a table at BotCon. Things will apparently proceed as they have in years past. You find me, obvious luau-shirt-wearing self that I am (it’s red this year, not orange), and then if you want a book or a poster, I’ll have them on me. In my backpack. It is the Shortpacked! booth express! I will also be happy to just say hello.
I apologize for the last minute switcheroo. But unless Fun Pub says “ha ha just kidding you can have your table without the bullcrap form that the state doesn’t want to give you ever ever,” I’m not gonna be at a table. (And judging by the sheer number of artist alley folks who ALSO don’t have the form, it’s going to be a very friggin’ empty artist alley indeed.)
Damn. Both mail and fax and it isn’t processed. Somebody in their office must be sure NOT putting tax payer money to good use. Sorry man, maybe next year.
What taxpayer money?
I wish I was there to see that.
O f course they’re not putting it to good use, it just wouldn’t be good ol’ California if they were.
Guess they are all still in shock over the Governator’s love child scandal and can’t manage to concentrate on work.
Who knows, maybe the whole “mobile booth” thing will catch on. Imagine a whole bunch of dealers/artists wandering around with their wares and sales equipment carried on them, one-man-band style. . .
You can do business AND see the con! It’s win-win!
Hmmm…will have to hunt you down to sign my SG Ravage card I was given. Will you start wearing your shirt though? Last several times I’ve seen you this weekebd you’ve been (hawaian) shirtless.
If you drove to BotCon you could sell stuff out of the trunk of your car in the parking garage.
I think I read a whole group of people were going to go pick up forms this morning or something like that. Still, that definitely sucks.
California: “What’s this? Positive economic activity? KILL IT WITH FIRE!”
And they wonder why they’re so screwed.
Every aspect of form processing has been massively backed-up in California for several years now. It’s not *actually* a case of public employees sitting on their hands wasting tax-payer monies while they cackle, and it’s not *actually* a case of government doing its darndest to screw over positive economic activity in the name of ideological douchebaggery.
It’s primarily a case of there not being any money to actually employ enough people to actually *do the processing*. Shockingly, it takes money to run an office and process forms, and what with the nearly decade-long “NO MONEY TO GOVERNMENT” ideological fight we’ve been having out here, coupled with the bad economy, combined with the fact that the people in charge are far more likely to cut everywhere but their *own* salaries and administrative costs first, and suddenly there’s a bunch of government permit offices that take months upon months to get anything done.
“See!?!” people yell, “See how inefficient government is! We shouldn’t give it anymore money to waste!” and then shockingly, the parts of government we *want* to work efficiently suddenly can’t.
It’s a vicious circle of bureaucracy and stupidity.
Nearly decade-long? Try several decades long. Prop. 13, the I’ve Got Mine So Fuck You Act, was in 1978.
Hm. I’ll have to chase you down at some point so I can get you to draw Stakeout. (I think that will have to be a Botcon tradition for me.)
Although I saw you in the line for the Hasbro store last night, thus finally getting a direct confirmation that you actually exist and are not just a prank being perpetrated upon me by the entire Internet.
Oh! and I totally forgot to say: While you’re in Pasadena, especially at the convention center, for the love of all that is good and meaty, at some point go across the street to Paseo Colorado, up the stairs, to the Porto Allegre Brazillian BBQ Churascarria. It’s a little expensive, but it’s MEAT, MEAT, and then some MEAT, all brought to your table and sliced right there. MEAT!!
Mr. Willis, I wish to apologize to you on behalf of the people of California. Now, if only they’d let me process the form to issue the documents necessary to make the apology official…
How the heck did it take you 4 hours to get across LA to Van Nuys? It’s like 20 miles, should take no more than 30-45 minutes.
Because it’s LA. Duh.
Question – did you fax it to the Van Nuys office or the Sacramento one? I’ve always used the Sacramento office, and they never take longer than two weeks to get the permits back to me.
Also, now’s a good time to make sure you’ve got a permit for CTCon. FAR more annoying paperwork.
NEVER GO TO VAN NUYS!