The main reason is strictly personal. As I said, the Magic Con is on
Saturday, that's when my presentation was scheduled, around noon. Now, we
finish shooting the day before, on Friday. As it's scheduled now, we will
probably finish the actual shoot around 7 or 8 o'clock, longer if we need any
pickup shots. Then will come the wrap party, which has to be that night
because the day after, everyone goes off in different directions until we get
moving on the series.

Which gives me only two options: 1) Take the redeye out of LAX and arrive
in Orlando around 2 a.m. (assuming that I could even get it), or 2) get zero
sleep, catch a flight out of LAX at the crack of dawn, get to Orlando with
maybe an hour to spare, rush to the hotel, rush to the presentation, find the
room....

Madness. Especially knowing the shape I'm going to be in when we finish
shooting. By contrast, San Francisco is a half-hour or so flight, I can take
it late in the morning on Saturday, and all will be well.

It's simply a question of *time* and *distance*. It's not a matter of,
"Why choose THIS convention over THAT convention," I'm not choosing EITHER
convention; I'm choosing a location, and not killing myself in the process.
If the Magic Con were in San Francisco, or even Phoenix, or Portland, that'd
be different. It's just flying cross-country under those conditions that has
finally pushed me in this direction. My spousal overunit has been nudging me
for weeks now on this, "You KNOW you're not going to be in any shape for a
cross-country flight the same night you finish filming," that kind of thing.
And, finally, I realized that she was right. I have a tendency to try and
push myself beyond what I should, and I simply realized that this was what I
was doing.

That is the entirety of my reasoning. I'm going to be a wreck ANYway, no
matter where I am...since I'll probably get no sleep at all during the last
two days of filming...but at least it won't be *as* bad this way.

jms