Good Morning John. Last week I went to my first ever San Diego Comic-Con. I was there to do some panels, by myself and with some friends, and also do a little performance. I had a lot of thoughts, in this place about how weird it is that I get to be on the same stage as people I consider super legitimately famous. About how we create tiers of humanity and place extra weight on being part on one tier, when, in fact I can solemnly confirm that it is pretty identical to all the other tiers. About how conventions like this and the ones that I help run serve to concentrate the reality of fandom and excitement and expression into the real world and how great that is.

But while at Comic-Con, I had a more abstract thought that hit me pretty hard. There is so much media now. Oh my God! How do we consume it all? When I got back home from Comic-Con, all my friends were talking about Stranger Things, and I was like "But, guys I'm still catching up on Mr. Robot. I haven't even seen the new Ghostbusters movie yet." There's so much music, so many books, so many comics, So many shows and movies and Podcasts and YouTube videos. And we're all constantly bombarded by voices telling us to eat these things up real quick, and as soon as your done move on to the next one. The media industry advertises on its own media, to push yet more media, whether that reality TV, sitcoms, dramas, or the news. Never before has there been anything like this much media.

But John, I've got a secret for you. The special thing about Comic-Con isn't the amount of media these people consume, it's the passion they have for it. And in a world where you nibble and snack and then move on to the next thing, that passion, which is the source of so much joy in my life, doesn't get developed. And so I asked myself, what are the shows, the books, the podcasts, the online communities that I spend more time thinking about and contributing to than consuming? What are the pieces of media that I go to over and over again? The albums that I can't stop listening to, the worlds I read fanfic in because I don't want to stop being inside of them. The books I can read for a fourth time and still learn new things about. There aren't that many, but I want there to be more.

John, outside of my hotel room at Comic-Con, there was a port for dull produce. All of the shipping containers came off a boat and then they got stored, and driven out by semi-trucks. And since this is a thoughts from places video, you might think I'm about to make some weird abstract connection between the stuff I was just talking about and this dull shipping port, but that's just too much of a stretch, it's just that I wanted to show you this really cool time lapse that I made.

Anyway, I want to snack less, and have more good solid content meals. I want to stop consuming Cheeto media and focus on the things in this world that make me love them, that take up my brain and make me think for weeks afterward, that make me love the world and appreciate myself. I want to love things the way that these people love things. John, I'lll see you on Tuesday.

Hey. If you want to love things like that too, I might suggest that you check out NerdCon: Stories, which is an amazing opportunity to love great stuff. I might be a little bit biased because it is a conference that I literally built with a team of really great people. But, last year it was just a fantastic time, and I'm very sad to say that I won't be able to attend this year for reasons that will become clear, especially if you listen to next weeks Dear Hank and John, or if you check out a very long video that I just uploaded on hankschannel.

So, I won't be there, but John will, and so will a bunch of other amazing people, like John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dylan Marron, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, Cindy Pon, M. T. Anderson, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Dessa Darling, Maureen Johnson, Nalo Hopkinson, Patrick Rothfuss, Paolo Bacigalupi, a ton of other really great people. It's gonna be a wonderful time, I'm really sad that I can't be there, but I hope that you all have a great time without me. If you want to find out more, you can go to nerdcon.com.