My Top 10 Favorite Nerd Moments of 2013 🤩

✨ 2026 Author's Note ✨

Reading this post from 2013 is like opening a time capsule — and the A Silent Film shows mentioned at #3 ended up being the spark that started everything. Those November 2013 concerts with The Music Maven and The Gamer Geek are woven into the DNA of my debut novel Musical Awakening. June Snow, the protagonist, is the girl who went to those shows.

The trip to England mentioned at the end of this post? That became the Oxford chapters of the novel.

📖 Read Musical Awakening on Amazon — the book that 2013 Megan didn't know she was already writing. 🎶

2013 has been one of the best years of my life. I have gotten to do so many amazing things and meet so many wonderful people!  My life is truly blessed and I am thankful for everyday that I get to do what I LOVE! Here are my favorite moments from this perfect year!

Nerd Girls LUV Nathan Fillion

How could you not fall in love after looking at THIS picture?!  I found Firefly at my very first San Diego Comic Con in 2009.  I went home, marathoned the show and movie and when I was done crying my eyes out, I was officially a Browncoat!  Since then I have watched the show many times, it is forever in my Netflix queue and I have told everyone that will listen to watch!  Nathan is also a big supporter of the Kids Need to Read charity.  Being a pre-school teacher, this is a huge belief of mine and I am so happy to see someone of his level of fame, getting the word out there!

Nathan is the official/unofficial Mayor of Comic Con.  In the five years I have been going, there is not a place he isn't!  My second year he tweeted that he was at the CA Browncoats booth signing Serenity Comics for charity.  I ran the entire length of the exhibition floor to get there.  I arrived without my camera and without any money!  The Hunny was close behind with both and I was able to get him to sign my comic and that made that years con!

My 3rd year Nerd HQ tweeted out that tickets to Nathan's Conversations for a Cause were still available!  We just happened to be right down the street so ran over and got it!  He has so many great stories, is so personable and loving towards his fans!

Last year we were able to attend the 10th anniversary reunion for Firefly and that was a nerd's dream come true.  The cast was great and you could really tell how all of them were grateful for our love after all these years!

This year's Comic Con was extra special because we got to attend the Serenity screening at Nerd HQ on the field of Petco Park.  It was amazing to see all the Browncoats out in full force and to have Nathan AND Alan there to introduce the movie and do a bit of commentary!  How often can you say you watched a movie WITH the stars!?

Then Sunday, after five years of attending Comic Con, I was finally able to meet the Mayor himself! We were all surprised that it wasn't just Nathan in the photo booth.  Alan Tudyk was there too.  Nathan liked my Doctor cosplay and we shot the photo quickly.  When it was over I gave them both a big squeeze, BUT apparently it was a BIT TOO BIG for Nathan as he was "OUCH why'd you do that?!"  I then said sorry, sorry, sorry and ran away.  He was laughing of course, but I guess I don't know my own strength!

Where to find Nathan:

*Firefly/Serenity

*Castle

*Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place

*Waitress

*Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

*Super

*Much Ado About Nothing {DYING to see!}

How to connect to his fandom:

*@NathanFillion

*@FillionFans

*@WriteRCastle

*@CastleTV

*@kidsneedtoread

That is why I am a Fillion Fan-girl!

San Diego Comic Con 2013: Day 4

The LAST DAY!!!! :(  We missed out on the Doctor Who panel, but tried for the autograph signing.  There were 1,000 people in line but only 100 tickets.  We didn't get in.  BUT The Music Maven was able to get into the Community signing!

The best part of the LONG line was FINALLY being able to meet my good online {now real life!} friend Leonard all the way from the UK!  He runs the G+ SDCC group and is now a SDCC staffer.  If you are not following him on Twitter please do.  He is such a fun chap to talk to!

After NOT getting into any signings, I was able to roam the floor and see everything I was unable to see in the days prior.  I had a long shopping list of swag to collect and things to see.  Here is the amazing Futurama toy I purchased this year.  I love seeing these every year, I hope Toynami continues to produce them!

After a nice sit down lunch at Burger Lounge and a quick stop by the Geek and Sundry lounge {GREAT SWAG} the sister in law informed me that Nathan Fillion was going to do a Smiles for Smiles photo booth at Nerd HQ!  We rushed over there to already find a BIG line, but we made in and eagerly awaited his arrival!  While we waited I found out that my Twitter friend Barb was also around and ran over to say HI!  I was so happy to finally meet her in person and jump into a convo like we were already best nerd friends! 

Zach came out before the photo booth to thank everyone for coming out the entire week.  He had to whisper into the mic so I barely noticed he was there!  BAD NERD!  Hopefully he can get some rest and return to NYC with his voice!  I LOVE all that Nerd HQ does, it is such a great way to raise money for a great cause.  What wonderful people run Nerd HQ and volunteering all their time!

We were all surprised that it wasn't just Nathan in the photo booth.  Alan Tudyk was there too.  Nathan liked my Doctor cosplay and we shot the photo quickly.  When it was over I gave them both a big squeeze, BUT apparently it was a BIT TOO BIG for Nathan as he was "OUCH why'd you do that?!"  I then said sorry, sorry, sorry and ran away.  He was laughing of course, but I guess I don't know my own strength!

Then we headed over to the last panel of the con hosted by my friend Tony, entitled Multicultural Heroes.  He did such a great job and it was such a fun and eye opening panel.  Someone did video it, so I'll let you know when I see a link.

After the panel I was able to finally talk to Tony again.  We had only spoken briefly on Wednesday and Thursday.  I had my Geek Magazine and made him sign it for me.  I throughly embarrassed him.  But he is such a sweetheart, he laughed it all off.

Meeting up with all YOU readers of this lil blog was my FAVORITE part of Comic Con.  I do all this writing at home alone at my desk and it is so FUN to see how many of you actually read it and enjoy it!  Thank you so much for coming up to me and letting me know, it completely lifted my spirits and made me feel so blessed!  I love you all so much and I cannot wait to see you at next year's SDCC.  If we got to take a picture, please send it along!  I would love to add it to our Facebook page.  I will also add ALL my SDCC pictures there too!

Do not fear I will continue to write year round.  I hope that I can still bring you fun and interesting articles throughout the year.  Any tips you want me to write on or suggestions I would LOVE to hear from you all!  Please comment below or tweet me @thenerdygirlie!

RIP SDCC 2013!!!

xo

Firefly 10th Anniversary: Browncoats Unite

Last night we got to see the REAL chemistry the cast and crew of the show Firefly had and still have!  From the very beginning of this special you could tell that they all genuinely like each other and were happy to be there.  I loved hearing all the behind the scenes talk.    

During the audition process Summer Glau said that Nathan was a "jerk" to her.  She asked how his audition went and he said don't worry, I don't think we are up for the same role!  That must have been intimidating to hear from someone you don't know yet and who you thought was "handsome." 

Executive Producer Tim Minear explained that Joss Wheadon thought that Nathan Fillion "nailed" his audition, even though Joss had a different vision of Capt. Malcom Reynolds in mind. 

I really enjoyed listening to Adam Baldwin talk about how he got into his character of Jayne {my favorite!}.  He wanted to go really over the top and asked Fillion about it and Fillion was like eh...but Joss LOVED it so he went with it.  When Baldwin realized that everyone on the show as expendable he came the to conclusion quickly that he also had to make Jayne a lovable character.  Baldwin also talked about wanting to make the best show they could because they didn't know how long they were going to be on the air.  

Fox had already wanted something different that what they gave them for the two hour pilot.  So over a weekend they had to write The Train Job.  That is exactly what Fox wanted.  

Alan Tudyk aka Wash recalled his favorite scene of the series being he and Fillion having a heated argument on the bridge. 

Jewel Staite, Gina Torres and Morena Baccarin were not able to attend the round table discussion  but were added in throughout the special as side interviews.  Jewel said that everyday she is recognized for this show.  Gina had my favorite quote of the special saying "no one makes a major motion picture out of a failed show, it's never been done!"  Morena had the most interesting back story that was never told.

A future episode that was pitched by Joss to Tim Minear was this:

Inara has this special syringe, that she can administer to herself, that kills anyone who rapes her.  She is then captured by the Reavers.  Capt. Mal comes to her rescue and when he does, he finds her on the Reaver ship and all the Reavers are dead.  Leaving us to the conclusion that she has had a really horrendous experience {no words to describe this} and Mal then takes her hand like a lady and leads her out of the ship alive.  I was in stunned silence listening to this story.  We also learn that Inara has a terminal illness.  WOW would she have had a not happy ending!

I also loved the thought of Wash/Zoe and Simon/Kaylee children in a daycare on Serenity taken care of by Jayne.  

It was nice to re-see the SDCC panel, since I was quite delirious by that point.  Haven woke up at 1am and waiting in line all night to not see the cast until noon that day!  I teared up again upon their arrival on stage.  Loved all the emotions everyone was expressing, it was such a love fest!  It truly shows how much they all care about each other.

"When I see you I don't think the show is off the air." - Joss Whedon

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Day 2

Ok gotta start with my AMAZING news for the day 1st before I can even continue. As we were getting ready to leave for the day, I checked my Twitter (which wasn't working all day!) and Nathan Fillion tweeted that he was at one of the booths signing stuff! First off let me say, 10 mins before, I was planning on going to this same booth bc I wanted to buy something from there, but we were ALL the way at the other side of the convention floor, I was hungry (u all know how i get when i'm hungry!:) and so ready to leave bc we had gotten there early. So as soon as i saw this (he had tweeted it 11 mins prior) I yelled it out and grabbed Gage (the only other REAL Firefly fan) and we flew over there! I ran up to the booth and SAW him:) and then saw the line and ran to it. The hunny and bros followed slowly behind (WITH my camera! I called them franticly to get there ASAP!) They made it! and he was only signing these special Serenity comic books for charity. So my awesome hunny whipped out the $10 bucks for me as Nathan was coming down the line signing everyones comics. The couple behind us in lien said they saw his Tweet and ran all the way from their hotel to get there in time! Needless to say, I was QUITE excited! One of the pictures is of him signing my comic. Glad I had the huny there to take pix, bc i was so excited I couldn't do both!:) So that made my SDCC this year, and we still have TWO days left! Chuck being 2morrow!

Me after I got my comic signed by Nathan:)

Other than that amazing-ness, we walked around the hall all day getting 2 Dexter bags after standing in the same line 4x. Took our picture lifting a car:) Tried to get into the Joss Whedon and True Blood panels but Ballroom 20 but it got closed for the 1st time EVER I think! When we didn't get into that, which we arrived 2 hours early for, I went down to the WB booth to try to get into the True Blood signing. I was and hour early for that and didn't get into that either! So thats when we sat in the lobby and rested for quite a while, getting ready to leave, when the Nathan event happened:) GREAT day and 2morrow will continue in GREATNESS if we can get up close in CHUCK and possibly get his autograph and pic w/ him and Adam Baldwin...we shall see...Con was made today though, anything else is just icing on the cookie cake:)

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Day 3

One of the longest days of my life! We all woke up at 4am! It was still dark outside! We ended up parking very close to the elevator at the convention center, better than yesterday when it took us forever to find a parking spot. We headed up to where the ballroom 20 line begins an NO ONE was there! We were suspicious of this, so two of us stayed in that line, and the others went looking for the possible real line. They ended up finding it and it was already quite long! Some people camped over night! At 715am they let us head inside to the ballroom 20 line. To get to this line we had to go upstairs then outside down to the end of the convention center an then inside back the way we came. As soon as we walked in the door we got a blast of freezing cold air and that continued because the line stopped with us right next to the AC vent. We all froze! We sat in this line till 9am, then they let us into the ballroom.

We ended up getting all of our seats together in the 8th row back from the stage in the near middle. The Chuck panel began promptly at 10am. Beginning with a video telling us that Chucks mom is going to be Linda Hamilton from the Terminator movies. Jeffster then came on with a dance video to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, introduced by Zach Levi and Joshua Gomez. The video ended and Jeffster came out dancing to the song stated above, as well as the rest of the cast! The cast then started tossing out Ts designed by Zach. Black with Nerd printed on it. Zach, Adam and Joshua were all wearing them. We didn't get one:( But this panel was great! Very fun and made me remember why I love the show so much. Adam Baldwin got huge applause when mentioning Serenity and Capt. Awesome said after 2 years they still have to hear about his old show that has been cancelled a while! LOL 

The hunny got this great shots of Adam after the panel was over.

Next up was Family Guy and The Cleveland Show. Family guy showed clips from the new Star Wars movie they are making, answered questions and Seth/Stewie sang a song live along with a cartoon they showed. Which was quite amazing and funny:) The Cleavland Show did a table read of a comic con episode they are developing for their season finale this year, it was actually quite good and I haven't really watched the show before, made me want to. Next panel was prob my 2nd favorite thing so far this con, FUTURAMA panel!! They showed a special mini episode of comic con in the year 3000 and clips from upcoming episodes, all very funny and like the old stuff, which was awesome! The cast was there this year and they also did a table read and it was AMAZING hearing the voices of Fry, Bender and Leela LIVE, so awesome! We stayed after that for the beginning of the Simpsons panel where they showed a few scenes from the upcoming Treehouse of Horror episode, I laughed:) FINALLY panels were done and we just walked the floor and went to the Marriott's fulfillment room to pick up some swag. While walking there was saw the rooms where Morgan Suprlock is filming the SDCC documentary. By then we were way tired, wore out and hungry! After sitting in the car for about 30 mins we decided to head to In n Out burger for a quick snack before our dinner at China Camp. We decided this around 330, were done eating a bit after 4 and waiting in the China Camp parking lot, to eat again, for about 45 mins! The boys gorged themselves and I was hardly hungry...now to finish getting some pix up on FB and Shutterfly for tonite and 2morrow the last day of SDCC 2010 ends with the Castle panel, possibly Glee and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:)

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Day 4

Today, the last day of SDCC. The day before we woke up at 4am, so last night I went to bed at 9pm, woke up today at 7pm. I got a solid and sound sleep and was ready to wake up when I did. The boys on the other hand, not so much. I wanted to be in line for the Castle panel at 8am, 2 1/2 hours before it started and they were slow to get out, not ready for their long day of travel. But we ended up leaving not to much later than I would have liked. They dropped me off at the convention center and the hunny took the boys for breakfast at McDonalds and made it to the train station by 9am their train left at 930am. With the boys safely on their way, the hunny made his way towards me and the Castle line. I had read on Twitter that some people were in line at 5am! I deff could not do that again, and so there was a fair amount of people ahead of me.

But when we finally made it into the room, it was smaller than I thought and there were a LOT of seats. On our way in we were given a Castle aluminum water bottle! We were both happy that we didn't have to go to the fulfillment room again, I heard the line was quite long! The Castle panel began with intro video, of nothing that new, just clips from the previous two season. The cast came out and when it was Nathan's turn, the crowd went crazy! I think that this was the loudest and most camera flashes I have seen in any of the panels I had been in, this year and last! 

The entire cast was very funny! The moderator asked Nathan and Stana to read a passage from his character's book Heat Wave. It was very funny again! They then showed a fake trailer for the movie Heat Wave, which is going to be made into a movie in the 3rd season of Castle. 

Fans question and answers were pretty good and there was even a lil boy about 3 years old dressed like Capt. Mal from Firefly, I died it was sooooooo adorable! Didn't get the best picture of him, bc it was too dark in the room, but he was posing with his gun and smiling at everyone ADORABLE! Before the panel ended they showed a scene from the season premiere of Castle season 3 and it was like OMG!!!! Its back Monday, September 20th. 

Afterwards was the Merlin panel we stayed up until the fan Q&A. I had seen an episode or two of the show, but the hunny was more of a fan than me. They showed a short interview of some of the cast that could not be there and then a blooper real and a teaser for the 3rd season. All great, added the 1st season to my Netflix instant queue. When the fan questions began, we headed down to the floor for one last sweep and to get to Chris Saunders booth so hunny could spend some of his money:) I spent all mine by Friday and then some! By that time I was sooooo tried again and getting hungry so we just headed home. Skipped out on Glee and Sunny. I saw the cast in LA and the hunny went to the Sunny signing last year, we had a long weekend and really just wanted to head home and nap:) I had a GREAT Comic Con and soooooo happy and my life is complete:) Till next year.....

San Diego Comic Con 2011: Day 3

Good family picture....

Tired family picture...3rd day waking up at 6am.

Our early rising was for the Being Human panel at the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel.  When we arrived to the line at 7:30am there were already over 200 people in line.  And after our arrival the line BLEW UP!  We were let in around 9:30am for The Attack of the Show panel.  @The_Gamer_Geek was super excited about this one, he LOVES this show and was able to meet the hosts the day before, also very happy about that:)  For that panel we ended up being about 14 rows back.  After that the family left and the hunny got us up a few more rows for the Sanctuary panel.  This was break time for us, as the Being Human panel wasn't until afterwards.  

FINALLY the time was upon us...we moved up a couple more rows and they showed a lil preview of next season (which they had only been filming for a week) and it was exciting!  The three main actors Sam Witwer (my favorite), Meaghan Rath and Sam Huntington (the hunny's fav) were AWESOME.  They were super talkative, personable, friendly and very FUNNY!  This was deffinalty one of the highlights of my con.  

We left directly after that and walked around the floor a bit.  Phineas and Ferb were having a signing.

And I decied to finally venture into the Perry mobile and guess who was standing right next to me Mr. Perry himself Dee Bradley Baker!  

Someone in line was nice enough to snap a picture of me with him.  

After reuniting with the family downtown to get our FREE Cowboys and Aliens Ts, I saw a tweet from The Nerd Machine that there were 40 tickets available for the Nathan Fillion panel at their Nerd HQ, and we were RIGHT by it, so The Music Maven and I ran over there and were able to get in, right as Zachary Levi was beginning the panel!  

We even had Chuck actors Joshua Gomez (Morgan Grimes) and Ryan McPartlin (Capt. Awesome) sitting directly behind us!!  

Zach introduced Nathan and gave him the sweetest hug...awwwww!!

Nathan began with wishing and wishing and wishing how much his co-star Jewel Staite could be there and we were all like....????? and then.....

She walks out! :)  Nathan then said he would so much rather Jewel be there than Adam Baldwin! and then......

ADAM came out!!!  This was such a great panel.  They talked about nothing in particular but it was super funny and at sometimes sweet and of course always charming!  

Then the end they posed for the 200 attends.  It was a awesome and intimate setting...so thankful for Twitter!  

After the panel we headed downstairs to check out NERDHQ.  I LOVED the Lego Nerd Machine and The Music Maven bought me my NERD HQ Hat...which the Hunny ended up stealing from me!

By this time we were exhausted from 4 days of SDCC and early call times!  We walked through the Hard Rock Hotel, where I had to stop for a picture with my FAV magazine, then just hung out on a bench in front of the hotel to take a load off!  Shortly after sitting down we saw Nathan Fillion walk out "in disguise" he was wearing exactly what he was wearing to the NERD HQ panel but with his "disguise."  Will post a picture of it in tomorrow's blog post, since he might want to walk around the con with it tomorrow too:) THAT WAS FUN!

AND GUESS WHO DECIDES TO WALK BY!?  THE CAST OF BEING HUMAN!!  It happened so fast that I didn't grab them for a picture, but got a nice one of my Sam.  We also ended up seeing Nick Swardson from Grandmas Boy, a G4 personality and The Punisher, Thomas Jane.  

We ended up resting there for 2 hours, by that time the Being Human cast came back around and just hung out right in front of us.  I walked over and said hi to Meaghan Wrath and she was pleasantly surprised to find out my name was Megan too, and I got a picture with her.  The other seamed busy and were all talking with Thomas Jane, so I didn't want to butt in...but someone else decided to, sooooooo.....

I was able to get a picture with all three of them and Sam Witwer had his arm around me nice and snug :)  I was so excited afterwards that I didn't see if the Hunny wanted a shot with his Sam the werewolf...soooooo  

We grabbed him and the Huny was super happy to get a shot with his man crush:)  This MADE both of our SDCC!!!

After this the zombie walk was coming to an end where we were standing, so @The_Gamer_Geek was happy to be able to catch the tail end of it.

This was hands down, THE best SDCC day I have had in the 3 years we have been going!  Next year I'm just going to camp out in front of the Hard Rock Hotel!  One more day to go!!!

San Diego Comic Con 2011: Day 4

We gave ourselves time to sleep in and ended up leaving the house by 9am.  Dad was too pooped to come this last day!

As soon as we got there, we walked on to the floor, and it was nice!  Not as crowded at Saturday.  We were there for about 3 minutes when we walked past Gollum aka Andy Serkis!  He was with his kids and chatting up Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew.  I did a double take as we got closer and totally pointed at him and said kinda loudly...THAT'S Gollum!!  His small children looked up at me like I was a werdio...as we past, I stopped for a quick shot.  We walked about 20 feet more and I almost ran into Sam Witwer from Being Human!!!  Again I yelled to John, with Sam pretty close to me....THERE'S SAM!!  John called me a stalker, but I DIDN'T follow him, so I wasn't!  :)  

We ended up walking around the floor together and separately on and off waiting to get in the H Hall line for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia panel.  This artist was using Sharpie markers to draw a Star Wars mural on a VW throughout the con and it was AMAZING!

Loved this Voltron statue.

Was excited to see all the NEW Futurama toys getting ready to come out!  Was SUPER happy to see these three.  Also they had coming out the robot mafia figures.  

When I re-met up with the hunny, he told me he spotted the Sunny cast and that they were signing at the Fox booth.  So we walked by and for poeple who didn't have a signing ticket, the security had made a photo walking line.  I didn't get a good picture of Dee, but Mac looked right at me for this one and after I took it, I smiled and waved and he waved back!  :)  After this we headed over to the H Hall line.

Ferb is a NERD too! :)

The Hunny gets a hold of the camera.

So the H Hall line was a mad house, when we arrived Glee fans were piling out and Supernatural fans were trying to get in.  I was kinda hoping we were early enough to get into Doctor Who panel.  But our line was stopped with less than 100 left...so no Doctor Who for us.  But after a 3 hour wait, in the blazing sun!!, we finally got in for The Cleveland Show panel.  They showed part of their Comic Con episode which was cool, now I want to see the rest.  Then it was finally time for the SUNNY panel!!!  The whole cast came out in their Nightman Cometh costumes on!  We got to watch an entire new episode from the new season and then there was time for a Q&A.  The very last and best question was asking them to sing the Nightman song...it was STUPENDOUSNESS!!  

We got out of the Sunny panel just in time for me to get my LAST Nathan Fillion sighting of the con.  I hauled butt over to the CA Browncoats booth for his signing.  I didn't have tickets but was happy just to get a few pictures....and here is his disguise from yesterday....

Nathan Fillion coming out of the Hard Rock Hotel and heading to the Con.

I LUV DEXTER!!

My cute hunny in my hat...he looks cute in hats now that he has long hair!  This was defiantly the BEST SDCC for me!  The 1st two years I was so happy to just be there, that I wasn't paying attention to the people around me (celebrities).  It is such a TREAT to see people that you love to watch on TV/Movies in real life!  50 weeks till next years San Diego Comic con!!!!