Underpants Gnomes

It's possible that I caught a cold or something while I was in Indy. I've got a stuffy nose and it sucks. I just ran out of "facial tissue" too, so I have to use toilet paper to blow my nose. :( Oh well.

***
So ... GenCon ... wooh. It was mostly a rollercoaster of fun and disappointment. Thus, I've deemed it an "enjoyable disappointment". I suppose I'll start by giving as much detail possible, but since I'm not feeling too well, I'll probably neglect to end the story as such.

I flew out Thursday morning. As some of us know, airport security went to high alert that day, restricting certain items from being carry-on: shampoo, hairspray, toothpaste, and other liquids. So ... I had to part with my new tube of toothpaste. And even though I had checked into my flight online, I had to wait in line to print the boarding pass. I flew Delta to Ohio to visit my mom, and they have certain kiosks just for online checkers. AirTran didn't. So that sucked. And since I was bringing my laptop, I had to pull it out of my bag to go through security ... that sucked. I packed my clothes around the laptop to cushion it during the flight. So I had to repack those clothes.

When I got to my seat, Dave Arneson was sitting there. I didn't want to make him move, so I stole his seat. I can't say it was an exciting conversation, but I still enjoyed talking to him. At some point, I agreed to run an errand for him, since his granddaughter wasn't there to do it for him and I didn't have much planned for the weekend. I also managed to mooch a ride from him to the convention center. Since Dave's a guest of honor, GenCon was going to have someone pick him up from the airport. Well, that someone never showed, so Dave got a taxi and said he was going to have GenCon reimburse him. So ... free ride for me!

I probably made a mistake by packing only carry-on, because I didn't have room for shoes and pants. So I did end up wearing my boots and khakis the entire weekend. And since one of my costumes was Indiana Jones, I was also carrying my leather jacket and hat on the plane ... it didn't go so well. Also, while I was on the plane, I realized that I left my badge ($60 preorder, $75 at the door) hanging on my lamp in my bedroom ... there must be something wrong with my brain. *sigh*

So I had to shell out more cash on Thursday to get another badge. Oh well. I was also carrying my laptop around with the intent to show it off to a future employer. But I chickened out of talking to the Cryptic Studio guys. I also lazied out of talking to anyone else. So my shoulders weren't too happy about carrying that laptop for nothing.

Casa3 lazied out of playing True Dungeon, so I took his spot. I played a Barbarian, but I never went into a rage. Darn. TD was actually pretty fun this time. The last time I had played didn't go so well. I didn't feel like I was helping the party much with the puzzles and I couldn't do combat very well. Also, Casa1 was taken captive at somepoint the first time, and we had no idea what happened to her. We weren't sure if she just stormed off or if she had to go to the bathroom so bad that she didn't tell anyone. Plus, we all died ... I think. This time was much better. Though I didn't particularly solve any of the puzzles, I did pull my own weight. My lanky arms helped reach the thieves tools on the other side of the room. With the DM's help, I advised to not guess the magic word to raise our wizard was "live". Instead, it was "veil" ... "live" would have just been too obvious. And though we beat the last puzzle, us programmers didn't know it was in base 8. Stupid spiders. But it was fun.

That was Thursday. I did talk to the Cryptic guys on Friday. That was a disappointment. They pretty much said that programmers and game designers have to apply online to take the tests. I figured they would have had a test or something with them at the convention, but I guess not. If I'm feeling better tomorrow, I'll probably take it then.

I stalked Dave Arneson's booth for a few hours waiting for his instructions (and monies) for the errand. See, Dave was thinking about getting a pitcher-full of d20s to hand out to each student that goes through his class. But he'd need someone to go do that for him. Well, he said he'd leave an envelope for me at the booth, but he neglected to do so. So I had to wander around until he was done with his seminar. I got a few curious looks while picking out only d20s.

I also watched some anime on Friday. There was a really odd one about a high school boy whose right hand was replaced with a little girl. Well, the girl was a year or two younger than him, but was the size of a little doll. Really really weird, but cute.

My camera was out of film, so I bought more. Then the batteries died, so I bought more. Then the camera broke ... so I have to buy another. We'll see if any of the pictures I took will come out okay. I doubt it, since I don't think the flash ever went off.

That's about all I did on Friday. I was also carrying my laptop around, so my shoulders were pretty sore by the end of the day.

Saturday was the climax of the rollercoaster, followed by some hard disappointment, followed my more climax. Rar. I started the day around 11am and went on a wine tasting tour with CasaMom. I didn't care much for the dry wines, but the sweet wines were pretty good. The wine tasting tour, however, was away from the convention center, so the majority of the attendees around weren't from GenCon. (Note that it was some festival near the winery, but the festival wasn't offering the wine tasting. GenCon people are jerks; so they happened to schedule it for a bad day.) So I was getting some stares for being dressed up in my Jedi costume. I didn't really think of that until after I left the hotel room. Oh well, it was fun.

After that, I stalked Belle and Spoons in TD. They were working in the tavern to have their badges paid for. Well, I found out that visiting someone at work is generally disappointing. 'Cause, you know, they're working! So I sat around looking at the games I had bought from the exhibit hall: Treehouse, Freeloader, and U.S. Patent Number 1. U.S. Patent Number 1 was the reason I was late to work once ... it was half an hour after my shift started before I realized I was late. *gulp* I was totally speeding to get to work. Not my best day. Well, Treehouse is definitely fun, and pretty quick to pick up and play. Freeloader is a longer game, and looks fairly fun. I wish I could have played it at GenCon with the Casa, but oh well.

So, after Belle's shift, we had margaritas together in the tavern. It tasted good until I swallowed. Salty aftertaste. Then I went to a chili and burger place with CasaMom, Dad, and 3. Of course, I ordered a chiliburger. That was the only food I'd eaten that day, the rest was alcohol. So my stomach wasn't feeling too great.

After supper was the Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT) live read. I took off my Jedi costume and put on my KoDT polo for it. I'm not sure the shirt was worth $35, but I like it. The live read was pretty fun. While we were waiting for it to start, they released a giant inflatable ball into the crowd. We had lots of fun playing gamer volleyball. I totally got hit in the face and so did Casa4. Best ballgame ever. So, for the live read, the creators choose audience members at random to read a comic strip on stage. This year we got all four Casa kids on stage. Not at the same time, but almost back-to-back strips. I think they then had to actually shuffle the names. Heh. I can't say they chose the funniest strips though, some seemed a little dull. Then again, I don't care much for the Black Hands. And the room got a bit warm with all the gamers. It was still really enjoyable.

After KoDT was the GenCon dance. Belle said she was going to drag me there (though I was going to drag her there). Turns out Belle lazied out of going, since she was planning on helping tear down True Dungeon. Spoons wasn't too sure if she was going to go or not, but I was hoping she would. I'd then have someone to hang out with (and possibly dance with). Well ... the dance wasn't what I expected, though I'm not sure what I was supposed to expect from a gamer dance. It was more rock/rave than I had thought would be there. So while I was waiting for Spoons to arrive, I wandered in a circle a few times and then got out of there. (I put my costume back on for the dance, since that was what had been agreed upon.) Well, when Spoons got there, she wasn't in costume since hers managed to get a tear in it. Ouch. She did the same thing I did, circle a few times and get bored. Of course, I was following her around expecting that we'd stop and dance ... or at least talk. Apparently she doesn't like being followed, so I had to stop. Well, she found a friend from TD, and since it was totally too loud in there to have a conversation of three people, I took off. Though it wasn't as big a disappointment as Cryptic, it hurt more.

I then went to help Belle tear down the True Dungeon set. Aside from the KoDT ballgame, that was seriously the most fun I had all weekend. I enjoy doing "behind the scenes" work. Plus, manual labor took my mind off Spoons. Though I was feeling pretty bad for ditching her at the dance. Later I'd learn that she kinda felt the same way about ditching me. Belle got tired before I did, and since she had the hotel key, I had to call it a night. I'd really like to help set up and tear down next year, but I'm not sure if I'll be there.

[neglect to mention two key elements of the night]

Sunday was an average finish to the adventure. Well ... I suppose it did still have a bump or two. I went to a seminar about "Getting Girls into Gaming" by an author of one of Full Sail's textbooks. Both the speakers come from a videogame background (hence the book), but the content can easily be applied to other games. A few of the questions raised by the audience was about how to get girls into the gaming stores. Since "girls = money" apparently. Well, I can't say I learned anything because it was all in the book. Kinda disappointing. But I did get her to autograph the book. (Don't tell Chill. The class wasn't very great.)

Then the Casa went to the True Dungeon riddle reveal, so we could figure out what we did wrong. At least we survived the dungeon, so I didn't feel too stupid. Though our survival could be heavily dependent on Casa4's amazing ability to always land a critical hit.

And at the end of it all, I had the entire Casa's attention for a brief while to show off my game. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to show everything off, since I still had a flight to catch, and I wasn't sure how long the lines would be. Looks like I got thumbs up, so I'm happy.

The airport. It was so much quicker to get through Indianapolis ticketing and security. I easily went through a kiosk for carry-on only customers. (The reason why I choose carry-on over checked luggage.) Security wasn't too bad either. Except for the part where my laptop fell off the conveyor belt behind me. So I don't know if it was my fault, the belt operator's fault, or the guy-behind-me's fault. I turned the laptop on immediately after the scan and it seemed to run fine. Later I found out that one of the closing latches is jammed/broken. So it still closes securely, but it's kinda loose on the left side now. Oh well. It looks like that's the only problem with it.

I got through ticketing and security within 20 minutes, so I was still and hour and a half early for my flight. And then I learned that the plane was delayed another half hour ... ugh. So I downed a bottle of Mountain Dew and waited for a while. The guy sitting across from me in the waiting area was totally feeling up his fiancee (she was embarrassed). About when the flight should have been there, I decided to buy another Mountain Dew and a Dr. Pepper too. Right after I opened both of them, they announced that the plane would land in 10 minutes (instead of the delayed 30). So I chugged the Mountain Dew and got through half the Dr. Pepper. The lady sitting next to me liked my hat, even though I was only wearing it for the costume.

So after getting on the plane, it turns out that the horny guy and his fiancee are sitting next to me. He had the middle seat and I'm pretty sure his hand was between her legs the entire flight. I'm not too sure what they were doing, but it didn't make me feel any better. I was surrounded by couples, thus adding to my depression. Jerks and their love. Well, toward the end of the flight, I started talking to the couple across the aisle (since they were both at GenCon). She apparently runs a LARP company and he ... does stuff. The had just moved back into the Orlando area (to be closer to her family and away from the snow) and invited me to get together sometime so we could play board games and stuff. I'm not too sure how much time I have free to do this, with school and all, but it'd be fun. If they're not in their late 20s, they have to be in their early 30s. So ... kinda close to my age.

And thus, the adventure ended on a high note ... though I've got huge blisters on my feet.