All About Credit Cards

Who this is for 

A recent poll conducted by NEFE shows that four out of five adults in the US wish they were required to complete a personal finance class while they were in school. My daughter, who graduated college a few months ago, is one of them. We discuss personal finance a lot when we meet, with topics ranging from investing in the stock market to taxes to credit cards to why she wasn't born rich. Not that I'm an expert, but I've learned from my many mistakes (see why she wasn't born rich). There's nothing I'd like more than to help provide a foundation of financial literacy for her. I'd love for her to stand on her own feet making thoughtful decisions about managing her money, and not be reliant on anyone else. This is true for my son too by the way, but he's been interested in this space the past couple of years, learning quite rapidly on his own.

So, with that said, I intend to write a few posts covering various topics related to personal finance in the US. The caveat is that I am not a finance professional and none of this should be taken as financial advice. Everything on these pages can be found across hundreds of thousands of blogs, tiktoks, videos, and books - there's zero original content. My target audience is just one person, and I hope this is helpful to her.

Let's start with credit cards. Those pieces of plastic that people whip out at restaurants, or use on their phones when checking out at grocery stores.

What is a credit card anyway?

 A credit is when you receive a product or a service which you plan to pay for later. In this case the product is money, and the way you get it is through a credit card. Think of it as a loan you get from a financial institution. Instead of paying for things directly with money from your bank account, you're borrowing money from the credit card company, which you agree to pay back in time. 

A big benefit of using a credit card over a debit card is that you pay for your purchase much later. Your money continues to remain in your bank accumulating interest until your statement due date. With a debit card, you pay for your purchase instantaneously. I cannot remember the last time I used my debit card for a purchase, honestly.

How credit cards work

When you use a credit card to make a purchase, the credit card company pays the merchant on your behalf. This creates a balance on your credit card statement: the amount you owe, usually the total cost of the items you purchased. At the end of a billing cycle (typically once a month), you'll receive a statement showing all your purchases, the total amount you owe, and a minimum payment due. This statement will have a due date, which is the last day to pay off the amount before accumulating interest. 

Let's go with a made-up example. You used the credit card for a month at a few merchants and got a statement at the end of the month for $100, with a minimum amount of $10 owed by Nov 10. Now the best thing to do is to pay off the entire amount of $100 by Nov 10 so that you can avoid interest charges. If you do not have the $100 by Nov 10 then the next best thing to do is to pay the maximum amount you can afford, thereby reducing your outstanding balance. Interest rates, or Annual Percentage Rates (APR), on credit card debt are incredibly high, ranging from 17% to 29% or more.

Paying the minimum balance is not the worst thing you can do, by the way. The worst thing is not paying anything at all. Not only will you incur higher interest rates on your outstanding amount, you'll have to pay late fees as well. Stick to paying the entire billed amount every cycle and you will be fine.

Most credit cards have a credit limit associated with your account. Banks decide this based on your credit worthiness which takes into account your credit score (more on this in a later post), your payment history, credit history, and credit utilization - the amount of credit you are currently utilizing compared to your total credit available. Another factor is your ability to repay, which is mostly determined by your income. Beginners or students with limited credit history may have a low credit limit (say $1000), but this will increase as you use your card, make regular payments, and add to your income.

Credit card fees

 Some credit cards charge an annual fee for their usage. These cards would have additional perks which to some may justify their high fees. I spend $325 per year to use the American Express Gold card for instance. I do this because I value travel points (see below for details) a lot more than cash back, and the Amex Gold gives me 4 points for every dollar I spend at restaurants and grocery stores. For example, a grocery run at Roche Brothers that costs $50 gets me 200 Amex points, which I can transfer to airlines and get at least a $2 discount on travel tickets. 

Now I realize $2 doesn't seem like much but this spend adds up quickly, giving me fairly significant discounts when I book travel. Amex Gold also gives me $10 a month as Uber cash which I can use for rides or ordering through Uber Eats. They give an additional $10 a month on Grubhub as well, which we use quite often. You can likewise get an $84 annual credit for spending at Dunkin' and another $100 credit for eating out at Resy restaurants. So if you make use of the full amount of all these credits, you'll pick up $424 worth of value, completely covering the annual fee. I confess I don't use Dunkin' but I do use most of the rest, plus the discount on travel, which makes this card worth it for me. That said, I don't think this is a card for beginners, and I would advise picking cards without annual fees and give cash back when you are just starting off. 

Some banks charge a foreign transaction fee if you use the card outside the US, by the way. I personally think this is an outdated system, and there are plenty of institutions that provide cards without annual and foreign transaction fees, and offer cash back points and other perks as well.

Credit card rewards

Many credit cards offer rewards to encourage you to use them. These rewards can be a great way to get extra value from your spending. The typical rewards are:

• Sign-Up Bonuses: These are rewards you get for meeting certain spending requirements within a specific time-frame after opening a new card. For example, "Spend $500 in the first three months and get 20,000 bonus points." I have obtained significant sign-up bonuses by opening new cards, which I've redeemed for either cash or miles with airlines. 
• There is a catch here though: some financial institutions track the number of credit cards you've opened in a two year period, and if it's more than five, they are likely to deny your application. They do this to reduce credit card churning, where you open multiple cards just for the sign-up bonus and don't use them later. Chase has an unwritten rule, widely referred to as 5/24, which does exactly that: they will deny your application if you have opened more than 5 credit cards in the past 24 months.
• Cash Back Points: With cash back cards, you earn a percentage of your spending back as cash. This might be a flat rate (say 1.5% on all purchases) or higher percentages in specific spending categories (eg: 5% on groceries, 2% on gas). You can usually redeem these as a statement credit, direct deposit, or as gift cards. This is extremely useful when you are just out of college and starting your career, as you'd usually want to make every dollar stretch as much as possible. So if your credit card bill was $100 and you've accumulated 500 points as cash back, you would owe them just $95 as each point is valued at 1c. You should be able to do this on your credit card app or on their website fairly easily.
• Travel Points/Miles: These cards earn points or miles that can be redeemed for travel, such as flights, hotel stays, or car rentals. The value of these points can vary depending on the card and how you redeem them. Some cards like my American Express Platinum offer 5x points on travel-related purchases. So if I book a $500 travel on say Delta Airlines using my Amex Platinum, I get 2500 points in my Amex account, which I can redeem for at least 2500 miles which usually converts to a minimum of $25 reduction from my next booking.
• The way to do this is to transfer your Amex points to the airline of your choice. You will need to have a frequent flier account with that airline, and choose that airline as your transfer partner in Amex. Let's say you frequent Delta, and you have 20,000 points in your Amex account. You can transfer this 20,000 to Delta, which almost always shows up right away in your Delta account, which you can redeem for your next flight ticket purchase. 
• Other Perks: Most credit cards have a lot of additional perks, which can come in handy. They include travel related perks such as insurance and roadside assistance, vehicle rental coverage, concierge services, events access, special discounts, cellphone insurance, etc. While you don't want to pick up a credit card just for these perks alone, they definitely don't hurt. What's usually not listed is the benefit of getting extra days to make your payment. That $100 purchase won't hit your bank account right away, unlike using your debit card or Venmo/PayPal. Your money stays in your bank gathering interest until the credit card statement due date.

How to pick the right card

 As with anything, you need to decide what works best for you. At an early stage, I'd argue going for a card without annual fees would work best, particularly one that provides a good cash back rate. If you value travel a lot, then you can look for a card which gives you 2 to 3x travel points for every dollar spent, ideally with zero annual fees or with low fees which you feel confident about recovering through their reward programs. You should also look for sign up bonuses, which offer you say 50,000 miles if you sign up and spend $5000 in the first three months. Remember, you can sign up for more than one card if you like!

Another factor to consider is the ecosystem you'd want to be part of, if you really think long term and want to maximize your points. The American Express cards operate slightly differently compared to the Capital One cards, which are again a bit different from the Chase credit card family. Most of these differences are in their travel and hotel partners, and in how you accumulate points. For instance, accumulating points from the Capital One Venture X card is drop-dead simple: any transaction anywhere gets you 2x points. On the other hand, Amex Platinum gives you 5x only when you use the card on the airlines they support, and nowhere else. You get just 1 point per dollar if you use the Amex for a shoe purchase, for instance. 

I've avoided adding details about backend payment processors like Visa and Mastercard, as there's little to differentiate between the two. They provide payment rails for credit cards like Capital One, Chase, et al. You would rarely need to factor those into your decision around picking the right credit card. Be aware though that while these two heavyweights are usually accepted anywhere in the world, others like Amex and Discover are not. That small restaurant in Kerala might take your Capital One Savor Visa card, but is highly unlikely to accept the American Express Gold.

There are lots of resources out there which explains the pros and cons of each ecosystem so you can make an informed decision.

What to watch out for

The main drawbacks of credit cards are pretty much what you'd imagine: high-interest rates and fees, the temptation to overspend and accumulate debt, and the potential to damage your credit score if not managed carefully. You also run the risk of fraud and identity theft, which is not uncommon these days. 

Regularly check your credit card statements for unknown expenses, no matter how small. Some fraudsters who've gotten access to your card start off with small purchases for a dollar or two, testing out the waters before buying an 85" OLED TV and the latest PlayStation.

You can set up transaction alerts so anything above a certain amount will be flagged right away. The usual caveats around security apply here too: never share your password or PIN, be cautious of emails or texts asking for information, avoid clicking on links from unknown senders, etc. Adding your physical card to your mobile wallet adds an extra layer of security as well. 

What I use

I'm on the Amex ecosystem primarily, though I made the mistake of signing up for the Platinum first, which prevented me from getting a signup bonus for the Gold card. If I had to do it over, I'd start with the Blue Cash Preferred, then get a sign up bonus to upgrade to the Gold, and then get another to upgrade to the Plat. However, I like this ecosystem mainly because of the travel that I do every year, as Amex provides access to a lot of lounges. They also automatically give you Gold status at Marriott, Hertz, and a few other places. In addition to a lot of other rewards and perks, of course.

I like Capital One too, and am an authorized user of my wife's Venture X card. This is a really simple card to earn points with, and their annual fee of $395 pretty much pays for itself with their $300 travel discount and other rewards.

We also use the Chase Amazon credit card that offers 5%+ discounts on all purchases at Amazon, which add up pretty fast. This card does not have an annual fee and has zero foreign transaction fees as well, which makes it a no-brainer to get if you are a heavy user of Amazon.

I have a few other cards too, most of which were obtained for signup bonuses or as part of other investments, which I do not use as regularly as the above set (eg: the Robinhood gold card). I'm still learning though, and there are new cards and updates pretty much every year that keep me on my toes. 

Happy spending!

A dumbbell with two

 Introduction

Let’s get this out of the way first: I hate working out, and have avoided going to the gym all my life. I’ve never tried lifting weights until a couple of months ago, and my exercise, until recently, was limited to walking, or a bit of running on the treadmill. I’m utterly unqualified to prescribe a workout regime, so naturally, that’s what I’ll do in this document. Secondly, this workout focuses on strength training, and does not cover cardio exercises. Third, it uses just a pair of dumbbells for pretty much everything, which may feel a bit limiting. 

Caveat emptor, as they say. Off we go!

Glossary

Before we begin though, here’s a small glossary of terms. Videos and workout instructions use these terms a lot, and I’d struggled to understand what they mean. Makes this whole damn thing feel like a close-knit clique, honestly.

• Rep: short for repetition. In the workout world, this is the number of times you need to repeat an exercise. For instance, if raising your arms upward is the exercise you need to perform, doing it ten times is ‘10 reps’. Took me a while to understand, but now you know.
• Set: from the above example, doing 10 reps is one set. So when they say do 3 sets, they want you to raise your arms ten times, wait for about 90 seconds, then raise it again ten times, wait for another 90s, and do it again ten times. That’s 3 sets of 10 reps. You’ll hear that phrase a lot when you look up workouts: “x sets of y reps”. Don’t let that scare you anymore.
• Workout: I use this term to mean a series of exercises. The lift-your-arm thing from the above example is one exercise. Doing a push-up is another exercise. Doing both of these is one workout.
• RDL: Romanian Dead Lift, but let’s not go there right now.

The Workouts

My goal was to find a simple strength workout that I could do at home, using the dumbbells that I had available thanks to my kids. After lots of searching, I settled on this video which talks about a four day full-body training plan using only dumbbells. I then proceeded to find short clips that covered every exercise in this workout, and made two playlists, poetically called Workout A and Workout B. All exercises are 3 sets of 8-12 reps each, unless marked otherwise. I’d advise taking a look at the videos linked to get a sense of what I’m talking about.

Workout A	Workout B
Floor press	Overhead or shoulder press
Pullover	Dumbell rowing
Overhead or shoulder press	Incline press
Bicep curls - 3 sets of 12-15 reps	Hammer curls
Skull crushers	Triceps kickbacks 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Rear delt flys	Rear delt flys
Lateral raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps	Lateral raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Goblet squats	Lunges 3 sets of 12-15 reps for each leg
Romanian deadlift (the RDL from earlier)	Front squats
Calf raise on steps- 3 sets of 15-25 reps	Calf raise on steps- 3 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout regime

Trainer Vinny, the creator of the original video, suggests two options for the regime. For a week: 


 

Now I find each workout quite strenuous, and am currently in no shape to do one of these in a single day. After a few hiccups, I’ve settled on doing half of workout A on day 1, the second half on day 2, take a break on day 3, half of workout B on day 4, second half of B on day 5, break on day 6, and back to half of workout A on day 7, etc. I hope to complete all of workout A or B on a single day, but I think I’m a couple of months away from getting there. When I started, I could barely do three of each in one day. Your mileage may vary, of course.

FAQ

What weights to use?
You can pick the weights you feel most comfortable with lifting - please don’t feel pressurized to start with heavier ones. I use two ten pound dumbbells (4.5kgs each) for most exercises, but have slowly started moving to 15lb (6.8kg) for a few.

How about breaks?
Breaks are really important to help you catch your breath and recover. I take a 90 second break between sets (remember, a set is a series of n repetitions), and two or more minutes between each exercise. In this context, an exercise is a series of x sets. Breaks between workouts are key too, so feel free to skip days if your body complains a lot and you need the rest.

And warming up?
Getting warmed up is important. Vinny suggests doing a few pushups or planks to get your muscles ready. I do a 30-min run/brisk walk on the treadmill, followed by a brief muscle warm up. Pick the warm up you feel most comfortable with, but doing something does help.

Can I really do these exercises?
I really don’t know. Some of these are simple, others can be quite strenuous. Feel free to replace those with simpler ones that might work for you to start with. For instance,  I found the lunges from Workout B quite difficult to do, so I switched to the instructions in this video as a replacement. Again, this worked for me, but you might find it too easy.

How do I repay you?
I take Venmo. I also take biryani, beer, and bourbon.

Credits

Thanks to all the content creators of the videos I referenced, especially to Trainer Vinny who provided the inspiration. Check out his channel if you haven’t already.

On the Fringes of Scotland

 

Alright; now about Scotland, the next item I crossed off my bucket list a couple of weeks ago. I had a lovely time visiting Edinburgh and the highlands, even though it was a fairly short trip at less than three full days. I'll break up the visit into three parts: the food, the highlands, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Edinburgh Castle

The Food 

Let's start at a very good place to start: breakfast. The pic above shows a typical Scottish breakfast, comprising the usual eggs and bacon, sausages, tomato, potatoes, a nice and crispy slice of mushroom, and toast, all of which I was well acquainted with. The new entrants were haggis (the brown circular cutlet-like piece), and black pudding, which despite its name turned out to be a black circular cutlet-like piece. Now here is where you vegetarians (all two of you, yes) stop reading and skip to the highlands. Black pudding is made from pork or beef blood, fat, and oatmeal, and is as sinful as you imagine. It's also quite tasty, despite being a bit dry.

Haggis is a mixture of sheep heart, liver, and lungs coupled with oatmeal, onions, and spices. You can eat it like a cutlet in the above picture, or with 'neeps and tatties' as in the pic on the right. Now these are actually cunningly disguised turnips and potatoes, which you discover later, much to your chagrin. The Scots call haggis a pudding too, but don't believe them. This isn't the pudding your mom fed you in India when you were all cold and feverish. What's more, you should be in the highlands by now. 

 Scotland offers other kinds of food as well, like this plate of fish and chips for the wife's dinner, and this nice bit of steak for the ever-hungry teenage boy. Said wife was also very happy with the devilishly well-made eggs she had for breakfast, and wound up skipping both lunch and dinner that day.

Fish, chips, and strangely enough, peas

 

 

 

 

Deviled eggs with the inevitable haggis below

 I would be remiss if I did not include the wonderful pulled pork roll we consumed at this appropriately titled restaurant, Oink. You decide your size, you pick your bread, choose your stuffing - which includes the omnipresent haggis, of course - and pick your sauce. You then plonk down if a seat's available, and dissolve into a state of bliss until you lick the sauces from your fingers and your stomach congratulates you on a job well done.

 

You know what would be remiss too, don't you? Oh, you do. Much to my surprise, you can't ask for Scotch in Scottish restaurants. Nor can you insist on single malt with a splash of ice, like you do in every Indian Bar and Restaurant ever. You have to go with whiskey, making sure you pronounce the 'e'. If you are a connoisseur like me, you can ask for a flight of whiskeys, sip all of them, and promptly forget the names of each one of them. They were all very good though, ranging from the less smokey to the very peatey. I slept quite peacefulley that night after the whiskeys.

The Highlands

Scotland is divided into two, as per our tour guide and bus driver, Neil. The highlands, which ye'll take, and the lowlands which I'll take to make sure I be in Scotland afore ye. Stretching from slightly north of Edinburgh to pretty much every other part of the country, the highlands are mountainous, sparsely populated, and comprise forests, castles, coastlines, and thirty three thousand lakes, called Lochs just to confuse the average tourist. Now the average tourist would make a beeline for Loch Ness, since they would have heard of Nessy, the monster that lives there. Not us though, the clever tourists that we are. Being brought up on a steady diet of Tintin comics, we headed to Loch Lomond, the closer (and more affordable) tour offered by Rabbie's. The lake and the surrounding hills are drop dead gorgeous, and is absolutely a must-visit if you are in the area. 

Inveraray, north-west of Loch Lomond

 We also got to visit multiple castles, some of which you may have seen on shows like Outlander or Game of Thrones, or in movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In fact, Doune Castle has a souvenir shop that sells not just Python t-shirts and hats, but coconuts as well. 

Doune Castle, of Outlander & Winterfell fame (just S1E1 though)

Kilchurn Castle, stronghold of the Campbell Clan

 Cows in the highland have a shaggy mane, powerful horns, and are called Coos, to make them look cuter to tourists. They are apparently the oldest breed of cattle in the world, and have survived for centuries as Malayalees hadn't made the long voyage over yet. The three we met were called Hamish, Honey, and Baxter (the Efficient one). 

 

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

August 1947 witnessed two historic events. One was the completion of a 4300-mile long voyage on a wooden raft by Thor Heyerdahl, and the other was the start of the Fringe Festival at Edinburgh. The story goes that the Edinburgh International Festival was created to celebrate and enrich European cultural life in the wake of the Second World War. Eight theater groups who were not invited to this festival went ahead and did their own thing on the fringes of this event, thus establishing the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which now attracts millions of people from all over the world.  The festival organizers are committed to include anyone with a story to tell and a venue willing to host them. This makes August a crazy time to visit the city though, with streets packed with tourists, locals, and artists.

Street Performer at the Fringe Festival

The Royal Mile, connecting Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House

We attended an hour of stand-up comedy where five performers took turns to come up on stage for ten minutes each, which was a lot of fun. We then went to KC Shornima's show at a bunker nearby, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I'd highly recommend checking her out - she's really good! The last was a rock show by this tribute band from Australia, called 27 Club. They play cover versions of songs from Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse, all of whom died at 27. 

And Finally...

 I loved Scotland. The people were friendly and welcoming, the food was great, and the weather was just perfect during our visit. It's a very inclusive country, which actively invests in human rights. They were the first country in the world to protect, in law, the right to access free period products for everyone who needs them. I was pleasantly surprised to find tampons and pads in restrooms, marked as free. Their LGBTQI+ community seems vibrant and active, with a clear voice during the Fringe festival. They take pride in their heritage and culture without making a huge deal out of it. I'd visit again, in a heartbeat.

No Land

 I run.

 

Run from messages

Messages that are forwarded

Without thought

As received

Received by warm minds

Eager minds

Eager to agree

Agree to hate

Hate the other

The other who is 

Not as pure

Not as pristine. 

I run.

 

Run from arguments

From conflict

From debate

From questions, and

From answers.

There's no land I haven't run to

No land without hate

Without fear

Without being othered.

 

Yet, 

I run. 

 

 

 

San Diego Comic Con 2025

 I checked off two items from my bucket list in the past thirty days: attending San Diego Comic-Con and visiting Scotland. Interestingly, the most common question I got asked about each of these wasn't the reason for my visit, nor was it something I did out there. Most folks who have a peripheral knowledge about Comic-Con ("civilians", as my friend the illustrious Satya calls them) asked who I was going as. Most folks who know one particular thing about Scotland asked which distillery I was visiting. While I wasn't there to cosplay or tour a distillery, both trips were amazing, and I'd love to go back.

 My visit to Comic-Con was all thanks to my buddy Satya, who is well-known to pretty much all the dealers out there, as well as to quite a few of the major artists. There was a long line of people, rivaling the one for George Lucas, waiting to get face time with the illustrious one and I imagine offer him multi-million dollar deals for his prized comic art collection. I had to beat them off with a rolled up poster so that the man could negotiate a copy of the first page art for the comic book you've never heard of but would have watched the movie version. To be fair though, Satya says his collection is small fry compared to those of the passionate folks he hangs out with.

Satya negotiating one of his multi-million dollar deals

 

 So anyway, since I had a dealer pass courtesy Satya's friends, I was able to get in early Wednesday afternoon before the civilian throng arrived. This turned out to be a huge deal, as I could saunter along the entire Con (as we in the industry call it) and look at all the unsullied booths without having to fight through hordes of plant zombies. That said, we were asked to not loiter in front of bigger displays like the Star Wars area or the DC booth, and were specifically told not to buy anything as it would put the general public at a disadvantage. However, that changed from 6pm when the hall was open for preview, and the masses started trundling in.

Alright, about cosplays. Sure enough, they were on full display throughout the Con. People outside the venue without tickets like this guy in a Deadpool costume driving around the block every ten minutes, to Ninja Turtles lining up to enter the venue, to these ladies who were apparently a version of Red Sonja far removed from the Brigitte Nielsen avatar I knew from my childhood. And oh, those plant zombies showed up too.

  You also had the usual bunch of religious folks protesting outside the venue, as comics are obviously bad for you and a sure shot way to get you into hell. This cosplay didn't make me smile as much as the others, strangely enough.

What was the best part of the Con? I'd like to think there were two - first, all the panels I attended were awesome, with some great discussions. I loved listening to these artists talk about their inspirations, their creative processes, what worked and didn't work for them. Their interactions with each other, responses to the audience questions, and just being a regular person geeking out at a convention, happy to be among like-minded souls and interacting with fans made them seem approachable and... human.

Panel with Eddie Campbell, Craig Thompson, Lee Marrs, Thien Pham, etc

Panel with David Dastmalchian, Eric Powell, et al

  I looked up books written by authors I hadn't heard of before, and have been reading them after getting back. I loved Thien Pham's Family Style, and was floored by Harold Schechter & Eric Powell's Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? The movie versions of the Ed Gein story (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw..., etc) pale in comparison to his real life.

 The second highlight was one of the main reasons I attended SDCC: getting to meet some of my favorite artists. I loved taking pictures with them, interacting with them, and getting their books autographed. Some of these were easy enough, but others required spending money AND standing in lines to get a chance at standing in lines to get their signature. 

Lunch with the incredibly talented Craig Thompson of Blankets fame

With Brian K Vaughan, he of Saga, Y: The Last Man, Paper Girls, Runaways & more

Daniel Clowes, creator of Ghost World, Monica, etc 

With the awesome Emil Ferris, of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

 I didn't tell my kids about this earlier as I wanted to surprise them with the actual signed comics. So getting Brian K Vaughan, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Neil Druckmann's signatures for Rachu, and the legendary Frank Miller for Karan was absolutely the highlight of my Comic Con.

Neil Druckman

After getting Frank Miller's signature

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life! 

Brian K Vaughan apparently knows me very well

With Tom King, writer of the Vision books and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Jeph Loeb signing (and doodling) Hush for me

The doodle bit is interesting, as it's an additional little gesture from the artist towards the fan. As I understand it, the vanilla signature on a book is the baseline. Artists often prefer that you ask to make it out to someone, as then the chances of you trying to sell the book with the signature on eBay are low. The next best thing is to get an additional little doodle on the page, which adds pizzazz. You can see some of these in the pics above.

The artist who drew my favorite Alan Moore comic, From Hell, Eddie Campbell

 I got back home with a suitcase full of books, a long list of comics to read, and a heart full of thanks to Satya and his friends, who were kind enough to accommodate a wide-eyed civilian in their midst for a few days at this mecca of geekdom.