Well, this is the last column I'll be writing before I head off to Comic-Con in San Diego next week, and I have to say that I can't wait.

This is the first ever time I've attended the convention, a little hard to do when you're a few thousand miles away from the venue. But in the 10 years that Airlock Alpha existed, Comic-Con went from a huge convention to a must-attend convention for anyone and everyone in the entertainment industry whether you're a writer, actor, producer, or even a journalist.

So I will be making the trip out there along with Airlock Alpha columnist Ed Left and many of my colleagues including Daniel Malen from The TV Addict and Jay Wheeler over at DoorQ.

Something I talk about a lot, especially recently, is a small condition I have that I think is actually more common in the general population than most people realize.

It's a condition that actually has a few names like enochlophobia, ochlophobia, or even demophobia. But basically, unlike a fear of heights or a fear of spiders, this is more of a social phobia which means it doesn't pose any real danger to a person like heights would (when gravity is present), but more or less is something that people have to overcome.

It's also a phobia that's not taken too seriously. In fact, I went to get some data on enochlophobia, but Wikipedia has absolutely nothing on it. Apparently they did at one time, because I can find some cached pages on it, but I guess it's not important enough to have a Wikipedia listing.

Weird.

In any event, I bring this up because Comic-Con will be my biggest challenge in trying to beat enochlophobia yet. Attending a convention with 140,000 people is probably the best way to do it. As long as I stay focused on my job, and stay distracted away from people's conversation or mere presence, I think I will do quite well.

Or I could end up huddled in my hotel room calling out for my mom. Who knows.

I'm doing a kind of warmup act this weekend right here in Central Florida with Vulkon Orlando at the Altamonte Springs Hilton. If you happen to be going to that convention, please look me up and look for a special broadcast of SyFy Radio Saturday night right from the convention floor.

I'm actually excited about this convention because this is the same hotel that I attended my first ever Star Trek convention back in 1996. It also was a Vulkon, but under the management of Joe Motes at the time, and had a few special guests including Kate Mulgrew from "Star Tre: Voyager."

I took my dad with me, and it was really a blast, and I still have a lot of memories of it. My dad wore a shirt with Mulgrew's face huge on it, so that when he stood in front of her at her table to get her autograph, she looked up, and was like, "Oh my God!"

There is a reason why I bring this all up. One of the things that I saw at the convention was a man named Arne Starr. He has been an artist for decades, and did some high-profile work (check out his site at arnestarr.com), but he also had become known at these conventions for having trailers and never-before-heard tidbits from upcoming movies and television shows.

I saw how everyone in his panel was completely enamored not with him, but with this amazing information that he had. And he wasn't TV Guide or Entertainment Weekly. He was more or less a Joe Blow just like me, and I realized that it was possible to do something like this.

Two years later, Airlock Alpha's predecessor, SyFy World, was born.

So now, some 12 years later, I'm returning to the scene of the crime. I say that a bit funny because I was just at a convention there back in 2005 when Michael Shanks from "Stargate SG-1" was there. But now I'll be doing some panels and such, including a "Doctor Who" one tonight.

It's not quite full circle. I'm not attending the convention armed with trailers or major tidbits (although I have some I plan to share) like Arne Starr did, but it did prove that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish just about anything.

And that's the advice I will need going to Comic-Con next weekend. Echlophobia be damned. I can do it.

I can do it.

God, I hope I can do it ...

SyFy Radio

Last week's SyFy Radio was absolutely amazing! We had John Kenneth Muir on from the popular online Web series "The House Between" and I think he was one of our most fascinating guests yet.

In fact, we had more registered live users that show than any other show yet. Visit the main show page now to listen to an archive version of the show.

Then be listening Saturday night beginning at 10 p.m. ET as we come to you live from Vulkon Orlando. And after that, next Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, our special guest will be "Star Trek" legend George Takei.

So you don't want to miss it!

SyFy Genre Awards

This is the final week for voting in the SyFy Genre Awards. Vote once a day for the next seven days for all your favorites, and prove to the Emmys who are the best actors and what are the best shows.

Just look for the SyFy Genre Awards logo on this very page, press it, and start voting!

SyBits

Send your letters to mhinman@airlockalpha.com, and maybe you'll hear them on SyFy Radio, complete with my arcane responses.

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Don't forget to listen to me host SyFy Radio, every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET (and available to download for free at your leisure after the fact) by visiting www.blogtalkradio.com/syfyradio. You also can subscribe to us for free at the iTunes Store. Simply log in to iTunes, type in "syfy" in the search engine, and ou'll be connected directly to the show's archive.

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Have a great week, and don't be a stranger!

Michael Hinman, a cult leader twice awarded "Best Kool-Aid Drinker," is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at mhinman@airlockalpha.com