Technicon 21 report
The element of Technicon that has stayed with me most this morning is the great pain in my legs from dancing too much too quickly Saturday night. Oh, yes… and I think that next time raininva and I go to India Garden, we’re ordering just bland chicken “tanders” and the garlic “naan” (bread). Our stomachs aren’t international enough for much else.
Bots, bots, bots, and marriage
I think it’s Ken Wright’s fault that every time a SCAdian refers to an “autocrat”, I picture Optimus Prime with a sword, shield, and crown.
Anyway.
Didn’t mean it to be six weeks since the last time I posted here… guess I’ve been a bit distracted. The main high point of that period would be my trip to Portland with Rain, which was pretty decent. It did trigger secret VTSFFC marriages somehow… I’m wondering who else got married that I haven’t heard about yet.
After a thorough study of the Warhammer 40K miniatures rules, I’ve figured out that I would probably enjoy the game. A quick check of the budget, and the remaining space in my apartment, tells me that I still won’t be getting involved in it 🙂
Got the BattleBots ready for T-Con… we’re only using the two big ones this year due to wear and signal strength issues. Look to your ankles!
The Borgus MarsCon Report
I had the first glass of wine I’ve had in years. Honestly, probably the best-tasting, to my preferences.
The dealer’s room had the Callahan’s Saloon softcover (“Lady Slings The Booze”) I’d been missing, and the next Miles Vorkosigan I needed. I also discovered that FanPro’s Shadowrun supplements are a lot more expensive than the old FASA stuff.
Stayed up till 3am Friday for a dot/Hack//Enemy demo. I won, but then the newbie is supposed to win demos, so they’ll get hooked on the game. I’m very cautious about getting hooked on collectible games.
Only ate one meal Friday. I thought I’d outgrown that kind of con behavior.
Rain and I gave Jesse Braxton her Xmas present – a set which included figure of Lucy Lawless, as Xena, in the style of “The Simpsons”. It went over very well.
Spaz-quested for 30 minutes Saturday trying to remember where the nearby Wal-Mart was. (We never found it.)
Learned to play “Button Men”. Discovered that the game has a few game-balance issues, but at least I ended up with a pair of Dork Tower Button Men (my entry requirements) and another pair of general fantasy ones (a fellowship prize for not throttling the little kid I played one round against).
Had a lousy dinner in the hotel restaurant. That place is just cursed, I swear.
Won two starter decks and a box of boosters for dot/Hack//Enemy in the auction. Now I can build a few decks at a bargain price, and play some before I decide if I’m really going to get involved in this.
Enjoyed another good Caprizzio show – the vibrating duck was good for a laugh, though it got a bit overused.
Managed to order pizza at 2:30 am, thereby avoiding going another 24 hours between meals.
Drove home earlier Sunday than I really wanted, but not early enough to miss the snow. We counted 6 or 7 wrecks on our side of 81 alone, and there we a couple juicy traffic-stoppers on the other side.
Overall, a good weekend – I hope more of the folks around here can make it next year.
Clearly the work of aliens, Scully
The Rising Star meeting in Blacksburg went well; afterwards, jdunson and I got into a lengthy discussion of dot/Hack. When we finally cleared ourselves from the parking lot, raininva and rattrap and rockbender and Bob and myself decided to make a quick run by Fun ‘n’ Games (MechWarrior boosters for the West Virginians and a trading card box for myself) and then grab some food.
Well, as three of us waited outside Fun ‘n’ Games, rattrap and rockbender just plain weren’t showing. Finally ‘Bender showed up and led us to an alley a couple of blocks over, in which his pickup sat on three tires and one rimless wheel. Yes, the lug nuts had all dropped off and he’d scraped his way along the street for 5 yards. Accident? We’re not completely sure.
We finally got it fixed after destroying my jack (gotta get a new one of those!) with the assistance of some nice folks at Hokie House. (A little instant karma for you guys.) Then, after getting our game stuff, we ended up at Macado’s instead because of the late hour. A little more karma to the Macado’s waiter who covered Jerry and David’s drinks for them, since they were clearly in a state.
Yesterday was far quieter. A day of concerted clutter removal and sorting in the apartment, and Rain and I were finally able to uncover carpet in the master bedroom and the living room – and now have several days’ worth of clean clothes to boot!
Another Roanoke Valley Saturday
Yesterday was quite productive, I got four other people in my office to Talk Like a Pirate.
dot/Hack definitely has raininva and myself sucked in, I’m up to seven hours of play, and I’m not sure how many Rain has. The “game within a game” aspect appeals greatly to my interests in metareality, and I’m pretty impressed with the emotional range of the characters – not something that most of my PlayStation games do much with.
Our Kellan Colt promotional figures for Shadowrun: Duels came this morning, so now we have a truly complete set of Series One. I’ve noticed that there’s already a FAQ posted on the official site with clarifications and errata. What did we gamers do before the Internet?
Rising Star has a staff meeting this afternoon in Blacksburg, and I’m looking forward to discussing ideas for the Emcee skit with rattrap and yubbie. I know that there will be other, less entertaining issues raised at the meeting, but I have a great deal of faith in RS and the people who make it happen. I see no reason yet to change my opinion.
Look! Bigfoot!
Two of my co-workers were excitedly passing around an e-mail reprinting a quote from Chapter 9, Verse 11 of the Koran predicting that an enraged Eagle would cleanse the lands of Allah. Needless to say, the e-mail’s a hoax (as a quick online check confirmed), but they were pretty disappointed to discover so. I then had to inform them that no, neither Mister Rogers nor Captain Kangaroo were Navy Seals or Marine sharpshooters.
Hmmm… I think I need to make something good up for them and send it to them through an anonymous remailer. Any suggestions?
My anniversary was quite good… nice and quiet; raininva and I lead busy, interesting enough lives that a low-key evening counts as a welcome vacation these days. Invisifest was a lot of fun, too, though I discovered that it’s unwise to try to learn Amplitude while DDRMax is pounding away behind you. The XBox game with the full ‘Mech control panel was cool-looking, but I’d rather play it sometime when I can sit and actually learn what’s going on.
I’m almost finished (finally) Red Faction on the PS2; when I do, I can start the first episode of dot/Hack. Rain bought me all three for our anniversary!
I’m still not sure what my costumes will be this year for Halloween and Rising Star Emcee, though Jerry’s suggestion of a rather desperate Tokyo Civil Defense worker as my costume for the latter was pretty good. Less than six weeks to get them together…
Days of Labor
Quite a long weekend. A pretty good one in a lot of ways, but long nevertheless.
Thursday, raininva left for DragonCon to do some contracting for WizKids. Thursday night, after my afternoon nap, I yanked half of my office out into the living room for sorting and re-arrangement. I ended up with a huge plastic storage tub full of gaming stuff that I don’t want to get rid of, but I don’t have room for in the office. That went to the storage along with another tub of loose items; several empty boxes that were just wasting cubic went to the trash, along with two bags full of stuff that just wasn’t doing anyone any good.
I can go while Rain’s at GenCon
Yeah, I definitely have to go to Anthrocon next year. Not only do I know a ton of people who go, including several online friends I’d like to meet IRL, but I just discovered that they had Mark E. Rogers (creator of Samurai Cat) there this year. The con t-shirt is way cool, I would have had someone buy me one if I’d known.
Of course, the only problem is that I don’t really have a fur persona. Starfleet officers, Time Lords, computer hackers, mad scientists, warlocks… but I’ve never seriously role-played a fur. I hope they’ll let me in 🙂
