TCon 23 report
Some cool things about Technicon 23:
Giving rattrap his combined holiday present for the next several years.
Playing the WoW board game with jsciv, meiran, and candidevoltaire; then buying a copy.
A copy of The Heroic Trio from kittykatya.
Opening the wrong door and accidentally joining this year’s Vile Skit.
Being practically the only character in vileone‘s LARP that was exactly what he said he was: no more, no less.
Friday dinner seated between Dwight, raininva, and Christy.
Friday night panels that went Most Excellently. (Some details soon in a filtered post, heh heh.)
A Vile Script that forced me to wrestle with rainbowsaber. (Oh, shucks.)
Helping southernsinger perform “The Dragon & The Lady” for Holly Lisle.
Late Saturday dinner and great conversation with meiran.
Thanks to trenn, chown -R us:us yourbase.
Frequent backrubby morale- and energy-boosts from shrewlet.
Two boxes full of new reading material from the Auction.
Cool artwork from kittenchan and ranchonmars.
It’s my 20th Technicon.
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Some less-cool things about Technicon 23:
It’s my 20th Technicon.
Not enough time to be in Whose Con Is It?
Long drives from and to Norfolk.
Not enough quality time with many friends.
My lousy Simon Cowell imitation.
A body that gave out too early on Saturday night. (For once, stomach issues rather than exhaustion.)
Our air mattress developing a hole.
Not enough time for after-con dinner in Blacksburg. (But a good one with Bert & Meche in Salem.)
—–
I’d call TCon 23 a success, for my part. Well done, nius, and thanks for the good weekend!
Fact-checking
I just found an entry on Star Trek: TNG from “TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia”.
Highlights:
“Star Trek: The Next Generation is set more than 100 years in the future from the original series, when […] the toupee technology employed by the original series’ Capt. James T. Kirk has been banned following the Hairpiece Wars of the late 23rd century.”
“Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton): An instant hit among fans, the character of young genius Wesley Crusher became so popular that Wheaton was forced to leave the show in its third season, after producers could not meet his skyrocketing salary demands.”
“Guinan: Whoopi Goldberg portrayed the Enterprise’s bartender, the last surviving member of a race that went extinct after being devoured by their own enormous, sentient hats.”
I’m pretending I don’t have to leave for work
It’s web video linkage thingy time!
“Cap-tain… Jean-Luc Pi-card… U-S-S… Ent-er-prise!”
How does the average WoW player feel about Murlocs? Approximately how Gimli felt about orcs. Now, here’s a complete Flash Murloc RPG to give you the fish-man perspective.
And Samorost, where I don’t know what’s going on yet ’cause I haven’t played enough. Cool looking, though.
Adobe Priceyshop
From a humor website: Encyclopaedia Dramatica. I think this may actually be true…
“Photoshop: Adobe’s® professional photo editing software, often used to create background images, icons, image macros, and to airbrush webcam photos. Nobody actually knows how much Photoshop costs, because nobody has ever actually purchased a copy of it before. Every copy of Photoshop out there is actually the same pirated copy downloaded off of a file sharing system. In fact, it is now believed by computer scientists and warez kiddies that Adobe doesn’t actually even create Photoshop anymore.”
Good choice of reward, too
For the diminishing (but still a majority) group of folks who don’t play World of Warcraft, advancement in power within the game is measured in Experience Points (XP, in gamer lingo). XP is usually gained by slaying monsters over and over (often a tedious process), or, more profitably, completing quests (which usually involve slaying monsters, so doubleplusgood).
How does one receive a quest? In any populated area where the monsters are close to one’s level, citizens will have a yellow exclamation point over their heads, announcing that a quest is available. Usually, one returns to that citizen after completing the requirements, and is rewarded with XP, and often coins, weapons or armor, reputation increases, or other valuables. Sometimes, the quests are almost silly: “Take this note to the person standing outside this room”; and sometimes, daunting: “Kill 20 of this monster, 15 of this monster, and 10 of this one, and bring me their gall spleens. Oh, they travel in packs, so bring a friend or two… did I mention that only one out of four of them even possesses a usable gall spleen?” Blizzard has shown great creativity in inventing different types of quests and related rewards, and is to be commended.
But someone recently wondered how this bore any relation to reality. In the scientific tradition, he decided to put it to the test… though he didn’t figure out a way to generate a holographic punctuation mark over his head…
I’d Be Thinner, I’d be Taller…
This is the second Heineken ad in this campaign that’s tickled me.
I would totally go to this club 🙂
Feeling like a ‘Prisoner’
All the typesetters here have code numbers that go on the printing plates, to assist with correcting errors. (I’m Number Nine. Turn me on, dead man.)
Still, when one of the pressmen walked in asking, “Who is Number Four?” it was difficult to resist answering, “You are Number Six.”
(Wouldn’t be accurate anyway. Number Six hasn’t come in for the day.)
People who dress odd
I suppose it’s not very convincing to call in sick when one’s already reported for work. Darn it. It’s nice out, and has been for the last couple of days.
An offhand comment about fashion (and the broken air conditioner in the typesetting room) led to my co-workers discovering I own a Utilitkilt. Now everyone wants me to wear it to work sometime soon – including my supervisors. (This is a workplace where one person has actually come to work in her pyjamas… so there’s not exactly a strict dress code.)
My jacket is currently sporting a button that reads “Paranoia, n. A healthy understanding of the way the universe works.” This made the day of a clerk at FYI Music over Christmas… apparently it hadn’t been a happy shopping morning. That same day, a customer in Red Robin went nuts over the “Team Banzai” emblem on the back of the jacket, and we spent about ten minutes swapping Buckaroo trivia.
Finally, I managed to watch “The Christmas Invasion” last night. That’s one of the darkest Dr. Who episodes I’ve ever seen. Someone makes a very nasty decision at the end, and though my knee-jerk reaction was to condemn it, I can sort of see both sides. I have to say that the new direction for the show impresses me… I never before expected to call an evening with the Doctor “thought-provoking”. I know I’ll be looking forward to “Torchwood” when that comes on. (Also because it’ll have Captain Jack Harkness in it.)
