Recalling PAX East : Day 1 - Nerd Ho!

"Now, let's begin to type some words. (Yo when I hit it, I hit L shift + O to the quote and then dollar...)"
- Penny Arcade theme, by MC Frontalot

The alarm went off at 6:50 AM Friday. I'd already been woken by my temporary roommate Vince moving around to hit the shower. Listening to the beeping of the alarm I very quickly got annoyed and turned it off. It helped keep me awake, though, so I can't fault the mini-mechanical for doing its assigned task.

... yet.

Anyway, it became my turn to hit the shower and I did at full force. I was still feeling sluggish and dehydrated from the night before and the shower helped big time. Vince and I dressed and hit the hotel restaurant - Vince was kind enough to share one of his continental breakfast passes with me so I could grab a free meal. After enjoying some fruit, Raisin Bran, a cinnamon roll, and a muffin I felt much more human. The two of us then headed to the lobby area where not long after, we caught up with Curt and Fox who had also set their alarm but for an hour after ours. (This was unintentional or so they claim) The four of us hit the mall where Fox and Curt grabbed breakfast. We were joined shortly after 8 AM by Jay, Matt, and Mike and then we scoped out the connection between mall and convention center where we believed the line would begin.

We were wrong.

To understand the situation, I'll give you some info: the Hynes convention center abuts an enclosed mall and has an entrance from both the street and from inside the mall itself. Given this clever architectural addition, you'd figure the logical thing to do would be to encourage lining up inside. As we were informed by some kind PAX Enforcers, the line actually began outside. In the cold. And the snow. And the doors to the convention would not open until 10 AM.

Don't know who made that decision, but clearly they didn't know the dedication of us gamers. Being repeatedly spawn mortared on a FPS map trains you for things that require persistence. (THANKS KYLE) Determined to be early in the line not only for the opportunity to grab bracelets which would guarantee us entry to the Friday night concert, but also to make sure we could catch the Wil Wheaton keynote and the first Penny Arcade panel, we went outside. Some of us remembered our jackets. (I was one of those) Those of us who didn't had friends go and grab them for us. Plus, some Enforcers did running high fives down the line to help keep us distracted from the cold. End result: the outside wait wasn't as bad as it could have been.

About a half an hour before 10, someone wised up and they opened the doors so we would could come inside instead of continuing to allow icicles to form on our limbs. We were lead to the room we affectionately termed "The Line Room" where we parked our butts on the concrete floor, broke out our games and our swag bags, and settled in to wait.

For those of you who have never been to a convention and don't know what a swag bag is, I'll explain. Conventions often have multiple companies in attendance. Said companies donate ads, free gifts, coupons, etc to the attendees - it allows the companies cheap advertising and amuses the attendees while they wait in line. It is collected and usually put out so that anyone attending the convention gets it. Swag, therefore, is Stuff We All Get. Look through the pictures I posted on Facebook; when you spot lime green bags in some of the shots, you will now know what those bags are.

Thankfully, our swag bags contained half-decks of magic cards, which we combined to form the Megazord er no wait I mean a full deck. It was during this time that Sean and Jeff joined us. We got in a couple games of Magic, some Pictochatting, and a few Nintendo DS games before they opened the doors at 2. The Enforcers guided us to the main theater where we settled in for the Wil Wheaton keynote speech. We got pretty decent seats thanks to our position in line and settled in again, this time in chairs. (Chairs are miles better than concrete floors, just fyi)

Now, if you are not a gamer, you may not enjoy the Wheaton keynote speech as much as we did. However, at the risk of you not understanding the myriad of references, I will let his speech stand on its own. Below are embedded videos from Youtube of his speech that someone was clever enough to record and post for us. Listen if you like, or skip past them to the next bit of the post, but I recommend listening to them because he makes a very eloquent case on why gaming matters to those who play.

FAIR WARNING, IT IS NOT PG-13

SERIOUSLY, NOT PG-13

IT IS RATED A FOR AWESOME BUT DEFINITELY NOT PG-13

Still intent on checking it out, huh? Okay, here they are.













IF YOU SKIPPED AHEAD, THIS IS WHERE THE POST PICKS UP AGAIN.

Immediately after the keynote, the first Penny Arcade panel was held in the same room. No videos of that, sadly, but it was pretty good too. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (aka Gabe and Tycho) came out to the music "Every day I'm hustlin" (y'know, like us gamers do) gave us a short intro speech, and then headed on to the Q+A. Some questions were good, some were dumb, but the responses were pretty universally funny. Or at least, I was amused.

That panel ended at a little after 5 PM. We decided this would be a good time for a dinner break, so we hit up the mall for food and then relaxed a bit before getting in line for the concerts.

Ostensibly the concerts were to start at 8:30 PM. This, however, was a lie just like the cake. Nothing really began until after 9, which I was very disappointed about because I could have attended another panel without missing much. (I reallllly wanted to check out the Girls and Games panel because I sincerely believe girl gamers are an underdeveloped market)

Anyways, the first act of the concerts was The Protomen. They were okay. The best way to describe their act is to liken it to 80s rock opera, with a very loose connection to video games. They were very enthusiastic, and their musical product wasn't that bad, I just felt they weren't quite the right act to have at the event.

Enough about them. The real hit for the night (for me, and for my friend Sean I'm sure) was Anamanaguchi. They play chip music, which they describe as "making music with a hacked NES from 1985". If you only hear the songs through their website, it won't quite capture the same feel as the live songs - definitely the pre-recordings are more oriented towards an 8-bit midi sound while the live product included guitars and drums. The lead singer struck me as a bit of an airhead, but nonetheless I was happy with their show. They, I classify as good.

The night ended here for us. Our desire to secure concert bracelets for Saturday, the late concert start, and the lackluster performance of the opening act drove our crew of 6 to bed at at little before midnight. However, I have to stop here and give props to the next two acts I would've seen: Metroid Metal and MC Frontalot.

Metroid Metal is basically what it sounds like: a band that does cover versions of music from the game Metroid. I am not generally a fan of metal music. However, due to events I will describe in tomorrow's blog, I had to catch a listen to these guys. As it turns out, they're really good at what they do and I'm sorry I missed their act that night.

MC Frontalot is a nerdcore rapper (if you don't know what it means, hit Google). His raps are all based on things that generally carry a "nerd" or "gamer" label. I really wanted to stay up to catch him at the recommendation of my friend Curt, but sadly it was not to be. As I later learned, however, he too does an awesome act.

If you are a gamer and you haven't caught either of these two acts or the songs they play. I recommend you check them out. In the meantime, it's getting late, I'm sick, and I need to try and get in to work tomorrow so tonight's blog will end here.

Ciao readers!

Recalling PAX East : Day 1/2

Hi Readers! I know it's been awhile since I posted - you'll have to forgive me for that. It is tax season and required overtime has kicked in at work. I have a little less time to devote to fun projects and March has been a month of getting things accomplished. The end consequence: my blog has suffered. While I do have an unfinished blog post I wrote in honor of March 20th (why I'm honoring that particular day will become a little more clear once you read the post), I wanted to set that aside for the moment so I could get in some blog posts from the trip I just went to.

And oh, what a trip it was.

First, the preamble!

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX, for short) is a gaming convention. Do you like video games? I do! What about board games? Same here! Card games? Those too! Tabletop RPG stuff? Sure thing! If it is a game, chances are PAX features it in some fashion. In an earlier blog post, I identified myself as a gamer and in spite of my Lenten sacrifice, I remain one. It should thus come as no surprise that I wanted to attend.

With the exception of the first year, the convention is primarily held in Seattle, Washington. It came to be because the creators of the webcomic strip Penny Arcade felt gamer culture was under-represented in terms of conventions. The very first PAX came to be in 2004 and held about 3300 people. It was held in Bellevue, Washington in a fairly small convention center.

Oh how times have changed.

As of this year, PAX has grown big enough to support not one, but two conventions a year. PAX Prime is the convention that remains on the West Coast of the US; PAX East is the new version held in Boston. Gamers from all over the US and Canada attend, not to mention many other gaming pilgrims who make the trek from various parts of the world. Attending PAX East along with myself were five gaming cohorts: Curt, Vince, Fox, Sean, and Jeff (not my brother). Alas, some of our circle could not attend. Such is the way of things.

Our plan involved flying up in two groups of three. I spent the day doing laundry, packing, and getting affairs in order before leaving. Vince picked up Curt and myself around 3 PM and we were at the airport and ready to go by our 4 PM flight.

It's worth mentioning here that the only paper I had to print my boarding pass had pre-printed images of unrolled parchments on the front. I printed my pass on the white back of the paper and at the time I saw it as a possible problem (e.g. the paper might not read on airport scanners). However, I wasn't that concerned and had I more time I would have drawn a treasure map of the US East Coast on the front with an X labeled "To Adventure!" at the end of the trail. Maybe next time.

The flight was a smooth cruise and we landed in Boston a little before 6 PM. A short cab ride later and we were at our hotel, the Hilton Back Bay. Vince and I were staying together and we dropped off our stuff in our shared room. Curt checked into his own room and the three of us then went across the street to the mall and got dinner from one of the most posh food courts I've seen. I ate a burger and fries, which wasn't terrible but wasn't that great either. During dinner we connected with Jay, a friend of Curt's who was a Boston local, and his friend Mike. We hit a couple of pubs for drinks and then managed to stumble out into the night in search of fun and adventure.

Little side note: at the first pub we went to (which had Zoiglbier, a beer I decided had been created so that Dr Zoidberg could have beer) I sat at the end of our quintet at the bar. Immediately to our left was a couple who was having a completely tabloid and non-PG conversation. I got a bit of dinner theater that night.

After a bit of drinking, we took a walk around Fenway Park and wound up at the Rockstar Games party. Apparently, Curt was on "the list" to get in; the rest of us just rode his coattails. There was originally supposed to be some playable demos there, but as it turned out all that was available were trailers projected onto walls.

And alcohol. I got a Red Bull and vodka (meh) and a PBR (meh meh). But hey, it was fun.

After the Rockstar party, the six of us (we caught up with Jay's friend Matt at the party) went to grab a quick drink before parting ways. We went to Whiskey's, snagged a couple drinks, someone ordered a terrible pizza which we all had a slice of, then we parted ways for the evening. Thankfully everything ended not too much after midnight, since we had to be up by Way Too Early For Having Been Drinking o'clock (aka 7 AM) to get in line for the opening stuff and guaranteed concert entry bracelets the next day.

Did we manage it? Of course we did - we're awesome like that. However, I'm going to cut the blog entry short here - I'd originally planned to put out day 1/2 and 1 in a single post but this is getting long. You lucky (or unlucky) readers will see a post a day from me over the next four days detailing my adventure from start to finish and giving as much details as I possibly can.

And how does all this tie in to the theme of my blog? Well, you'll see. :)

A Few Changes

Some of you may remember that I accepted a challenge from my brotherly brother awhile back. Accepting this challenge has wrought a few very nifty changes in my circumstances. I'm not ready to do any grand unveiling yet, but I'll offer you a small preview of my surroundings. I'm really happy with the changes done to my computer desk and in the mood to show them off, so here are shots of the new setup from left to right.

The above shots were taken with my new webcam! Of course you can see the new speakers in the pics - they're great! Music sounds fantastic now.

And another small offering to give the post a bit more substance! I was hunting for dinnerfood last night and not in the mood to make anything major. What I wound up with was a pretty neat idea that borrows some pages from the cookbooks of Charley and Liz. (You can see their blogs by checking out the blogs I follow in my profile. Go look! They are both rad, k?)

1) Cut and toast an English muffin.
2) While the muffin is toasting, mash some avocado.
3) Optional, but I felt like adding some ground peppercorn to the mashed avo for a bit of kick.
4) Slice some tomatoes (I used vine but any kind will do).
5) Pluck some spinach leaves.
6) Slice some mozzarella cheese.
7) When muffin has finished toasting, line the bottom muffin half with the cheese, then top it with the spinach leaves, tomato slices, and spread the avo mash on the top muffin half.
8) Assemble into sandwich!
9) Eat sandwich!
10) Gain +120 health! (Extra bonus 20 health for making OM NOM NOM noises as you eat it)

Here is a picture of the finished product:



To close the post, I'd like to offer the lyrics to a pretty awesome CD I re-bought over the weekend. If you can listen to the song itself I recommend it as it's pretty badass. In fact, get the entire CD. You won't regret it.

"Skin and Bones" - Foo Fighters

Lately I've been measuring
Seems my time is growing thin
Wind me up and watch me spin
Watch me spin
Watch me spin

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?
I'm just skin and bones

All worn out and nothing fits
Brennivin and cigarettes
The more I give the less I get
I'm all set
I'm all set

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones

Deep within this frame of mind
Heart of hearts oh valentine
Tell my mom I'm doing fine
Doing fine
Doing fine

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

Skin and bones
Skin and bones
Skin and bones don't you know?

I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones
I'm just skin and bones