Origins Post
Well, I'm not sure anyone was awaiting this post, but here it is anyway:
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004
This day can be considered the beginning of our trip. After I worked a half day, Shauna worked a whole day, and Matt didn't work at all, we all gathered at my house and were ready to depart around 7pm. I had hopes of registering that night, but we didn't make it to the Hotel until about 11pm that night. I made myself a cappuccino from hotel coffee and coffee paraphernalia and then promptly buzzed myself into a forced sleep.
Thursday, June 24th, 2004
Time to wake up! I think I woke up around 6:30, eventhough I didn't have any reason to do so. I think tried to sleep some more and woke up again around 7:30 when I decided that Shauna should get up too. Cons are almost like Christmas for me, so I have to get everyone up so we can enjoy that much sooner. So, once Matt gets moving, we have breakfast and get on the road again, making a bee-line to the convention center.
About a half hour later, we make it there and Matt Promptly disappears so he can check in with his WizKids crew. Shauna and I, left to our own devices, mill around for a little while, waiting for the exhibit hall to open, and find that the con game this year involves answering several questions about games. The questions themselves, however, needed to be found before they could be answered. So we spend time, still before the con hall opens, taking pictures of the placards outside of the exhibit hall. In addition, Patrick plays a demo for both Digimon and Knights of the Zodiac, while Shauna plays the demo for Navia Dratp (Yes, that's the same picture! I'm showing the logo poster!). After a few hours in the hall, we munch on turkey slices and grape tomatoes, for lunch. Then, when continuing on the quest to find the placards, Shauna's phone starts to ring(*not exact ring tone, but close enough). It was the hotel telling Shauna that we got bumped out for one night, because they over booked for the night. Patrick, along with Shauna, was angry! We then traverse the exhibit hall to inform Matt of the bad news. Shauna decides to take a picture of Matt before we tell him the bad news. "He'll be showing a different digit after you tell him," Patrick mutters to Shauna.
After informing Matt, we retreated towards the opposite side of the hall so we could no longer hear him cursing the hotel which was across the street. By this time, Patrick was also starting to feel the affects of low blood-sugar kicking in. Before the hall closed for the evening, however, Patrick and Shauna wanted to demo the VS. game. Once we completed the demo and Shauna comes just short of defeating the faint Patrick, we headed down to the food court and consumed some tasty hamburgers. Then we sit around in the promenade and watch games that people are running(namely the Buffy RPG), and Shauna gets hooked for the first time on the game called Palabra (Spanish for "word"). We had to wait for Matt to finish his Envoy game so we could head out to the Dublin hotel where we were displaced. Around 11:30pm his massive Pirates game ended and we headed out.
Friday, June 25th, 2004
Matt had to be back to the con by 8:30am, so we got up around 7:30am and rushed around, barely scurrying into the convention center on time. Shauna and I found out the locations of the sign we were missing, the evening before, so we went back into the hall and snapped the last shot. This is when Shauna had the idea to go shopping...for answers. We went to one vendor and found the answer for the Settlers of Catan question. We then moved on to the Crazy Egor booth. We spent at least an hour getting answers from them. Thanks a lot Crazy Egor & family! If you are looking for some gaming item or have any gaming questions, email Crazy Egor and I'm sure they'll be happy to help. Yes, that was a plug.
Around 1pm, after Shauna and I had eaten our lunch, we entered our Navia Dratp and Digimon tournaments, respectively, at the Bandai booth. Bandai, while not having the best booth, was definitely the biggest pleasant surprise, after last year's no show. Anywho, Shauna finished with 11th place and I finished with a 5th. Quite depressing...
After the tournaments, we mill around and decide to finish off the parts of the exhibit hall that we have not explored yet. Shortly thereafter, the hall closes and Shauna decides that we should check up on the table for the con game to see if anyone else is competing as hard as us. We meet Peter Corless at the table, and he takes it upon himself to try and help us out with our troublesome questions. Peter is a very interesting person who also wanted to take some time and pick our brains as to why we play D&D rather than some other role-playing game (like his), and then he asked for us to mention him in our blog as gratitude for his assistance. Thanks Peter! I was thoroughly enjoying our conversation, but Shauna wanted to make sure that we didn't miss The Great Luke Ski two nights in a row. So we went over to the Ballroom 3 and saw his second show of the con. It was pretty good, but the person doing the sound made the whole thing a horrible mess. Matt met us there, and then left half way through the set, since he was not feeling well, and also pissed at WizKids for dicking him over.
Following the show, Shauna and I went back to the room to see if Matt wanted to go to dinner (which he did not), and then we walked over to Max and Erma's and had a tasty meal. We then return, once again to the hotel, and looked up the answers to the remaining questions on the internet. I then looked at the answers and, with the clues already given to us, deduced that the overall answer is a song. We then attempt a few different things in order to play the song that we have created. All of the attempts end in failure. Shauna decides that it is time to go to bed. I agree and we retire.
Saturday, June 26th, 2004
We wake up anxiously. After having breakfast, I cheerfully take a shower (I hate water, so this is atypical) and get dressed. Then Shauna and I rush over to the con game table where we recalled that there would be a special hint, that morning. Of course, the hint was in cryptogram. Decrypted, it said: "NOW THAT YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS PLAY THEM." This followed my theory of it being music, so Shauna trades some banter with Mike Selinker (the creator of the game) about wishing she had her trombone. He then chuckled, and I suggested that we retreat to the outside so that we could confer with the only other person I knew that would be able to play the music: Tinky. Shauna gave Tink the notes and then Tink said that she'd call back in a while, after she decided what it was. Barely a minute later, she called back with the answer. Shauna and I ran back to the table again, and Mike said, "Is there something you want to tell me?" Shauna then proceeded to sing the song. He then told her that she was correct and that we had won. Yaay! We then took the booty back to the room, took the picture, and had lunch.
Then it was back to the exhibit hall, which seems like a constant magnet for the helpless con lemmings. This time Shauna decided that she was going to finally get to play Ice Towers, after two years of passing up the opportunities. Heck! She figured if a Storm Trooper and a Jawa could do it, then so could she. ^_^ At 1pm, I was under the impression that there would be another Digimon tournament so I ran back to the Bandai booth and found out that they were planning on cancelling the Digimon and only running a Knights of the Zodiac tournament, so I signed up for that instead, and they told me to come back in a half hour. Well, by the time the half hour had past, Shauna had finished her Ice Towers game and went back to the Bandai booth to play in the Navia Dratp tournament of the day. So, by this time, I find out that they decided to have a Digimon tournament after all. I asked if I could drop from Knights to play in digimon, but I found that it would only give both tournaments an odd number of players. So I was implored to stay where I was and hold up the balance, and I obliged them, regretfully.
Shauna finished with a 5th place, much to her dismay, and by some cruel twist of fate, I actually got 1st place in the Knights tournament. Afterward, we yet again floated around the convention hall. We found Luke Ski's booth complete with Luke Ski, so Shauna wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. We also went to the Score booth and picked up some promos (I know only one is shown, just assume multiples). Then we spent the left over time, establishing a firm grip on the Warlord CCG, of which Shauna has many cards. She likes that game. :) Then we were booted out of the convention hall, yet again.
Subsequently, we went back to the con game table to find out if we had won any other prizes (note the blue circles, which were skillfully added, by yours truly). Feeling victorious, Shauna beseeched me to go in the pool and hot tub at the hotel, with her, and for the second time of the day, I did go in the water. *Gasp* Then we went back down to the convention center food court and Shauna had a hamburger and i had a carnelita, which was basically some animal torn to bits and then thrown into a burrito wrap with some rice, beans, and pico de gallo. It was okay, but not great. Then we had some ice cream. It was yummy! When we were done with dinner, we went back up to see The Great Luke Ski in Ballroom 2 for the super 95 minute show. After a long day, we both went back to the room, and Shauna felt that the con had turned back around from disastropy to gloritoriousness. She then flipped through the Warlord cards that she had purchased and we had obtained through demo, and we fell asleep soon after.
Sunday, June 27th, 2004
The last day. We stopped by the con game table at the start of the day, just to say "hi," since they were still sitting there waiting for people to claim their prizes. As we walked down the hall, we noticed that there was a line of people waiting to get autographs from Sean Astin. Then we went into the exhibit hall for the last time this year and mulled around the miniatures, because I had wanted to find a new monk for our campaign, because the figure I was given looks like Mr. Miyagi as a sorceror. So, I found one, purchased it, and then went over to the free painting table, with Shauna, where I picked out a pirate figure to paint. We then spent the rest of the time debating what we wanted to spend the rest of our hard-earned duckets on, seeing as we had only spent money on food and hotels up until this point, really. So, Shauna, after many conversations with the creator, bought the Palabra game that I mentioned earlier. "Scrabble and Poker and Rummy?" Oh, my! We also split the cost of a box of .hack//ENEMY cards, and I bought the Battle of the Bands card game. Around 3pm we left the exhibit hall, never to return again. Moving on to the Ballroom 1 area also known as WizKids land, our mission was to reclaim Matt and leave before 4pm. We all but miserably failed that mission, leaving the convention center about ten to 4pm, and waiting for 5 minutes to get our car out of valet. We then hurried on our merry little way home to the impending bowling league at 8pm, and barely made it on time.
Pah! I did it!
Also, for an alternate perspective, see Shauna's Post
Have a comment? Leave a comment! ^_^
Paxtrix
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004
This day can be considered the beginning of our trip. After I worked a half day, Shauna worked a whole day, and Matt didn't work at all, we all gathered at my house and were ready to depart around 7pm. I had hopes of registering that night, but we didn't make it to the Hotel until about 11pm that night. I made myself a cappuccino from hotel coffee and coffee paraphernalia and then promptly buzzed myself into a forced sleep.
Thursday, June 24th, 2004
Time to wake up! I think I woke up around 6:30, eventhough I didn't have any reason to do so. I think tried to sleep some more and woke up again around 7:30 when I decided that Shauna should get up too. Cons are almost like Christmas for me, so I have to get everyone up so we can enjoy that much sooner. So, once Matt gets moving, we have breakfast and get on the road again, making a bee-line to the convention center.
About a half hour later, we make it there and Matt Promptly disappears so he can check in with his WizKids crew. Shauna and I, left to our own devices, mill around for a little while, waiting for the exhibit hall to open, and find that the con game this year involves answering several questions about games. The questions themselves, however, needed to be found before they could be answered. So we spend time, still before the con hall opens, taking pictures of the placards outside of the exhibit hall. In addition, Patrick plays a demo for both Digimon and Knights of the Zodiac, while Shauna plays the demo for Navia Dratp (Yes, that's the same picture! I'm showing the logo poster!). After a few hours in the hall, we munch on turkey slices and grape tomatoes, for lunch. Then, when continuing on the quest to find the placards, Shauna's phone starts to ring(*not exact ring tone, but close enough). It was the hotel telling Shauna that we got bumped out for one night, because they over booked for the night. Patrick, along with Shauna, was angry! We then traverse the exhibit hall to inform Matt of the bad news. Shauna decides to take a picture of Matt before we tell him the bad news. "He'll be showing a different digit after you tell him," Patrick mutters to Shauna.
After informing Matt, we retreated towards the opposite side of the hall so we could no longer hear him cursing the hotel which was across the street. By this time, Patrick was also starting to feel the affects of low blood-sugar kicking in. Before the hall closed for the evening, however, Patrick and Shauna wanted to demo the VS. game. Once we completed the demo and Shauna comes just short of defeating the faint Patrick, we headed down to the food court and consumed some tasty hamburgers. Then we sit around in the promenade and watch games that people are running(namely the Buffy RPG), and Shauna gets hooked for the first time on the game called Palabra (Spanish for "word"). We had to wait for Matt to finish his Envoy game so we could head out to the Dublin hotel where we were displaced. Around 11:30pm his massive Pirates game ended and we headed out.
Friday, June 25th, 2004
Matt had to be back to the con by 8:30am, so we got up around 7:30am and rushed around, barely scurrying into the convention center on time. Shauna and I found out the locations of the sign we were missing, the evening before, so we went back into the hall and snapped the last shot. This is when Shauna had the idea to go shopping...for answers. We went to one vendor and found the answer for the Settlers of Catan question. We then moved on to the Crazy Egor booth. We spent at least an hour getting answers from them. Thanks a lot Crazy Egor & family! If you are looking for some gaming item or have any gaming questions, email Crazy Egor and I'm sure they'll be happy to help. Yes, that was a plug.
Around 1pm, after Shauna and I had eaten our lunch, we entered our Navia Dratp and Digimon tournaments, respectively, at the Bandai booth. Bandai, while not having the best booth, was definitely the biggest pleasant surprise, after last year's no show. Anywho, Shauna finished with 11th place and I finished with a 5th. Quite depressing...
After the tournaments, we mill around and decide to finish off the parts of the exhibit hall that we have not explored yet. Shortly thereafter, the hall closes and Shauna decides that we should check up on the table for the con game to see if anyone else is competing as hard as us. We meet Peter Corless at the table, and he takes it upon himself to try and help us out with our troublesome questions. Peter is a very interesting person who also wanted to take some time and pick our brains as to why we play D&D rather than some other role-playing game (like his), and then he asked for us to mention him in our blog as gratitude for his assistance. Thanks Peter! I was thoroughly enjoying our conversation, but Shauna wanted to make sure that we didn't miss The Great Luke Ski two nights in a row. So we went over to the Ballroom 3 and saw his second show of the con. It was pretty good, but the person doing the sound made the whole thing a horrible mess. Matt met us there, and then left half way through the set, since he was not feeling well, and also pissed at WizKids for dicking him over.
Following the show, Shauna and I went back to the room to see if Matt wanted to go to dinner (which he did not), and then we walked over to Max and Erma's and had a tasty meal. We then return, once again to the hotel, and looked up the answers to the remaining questions on the internet. I then looked at the answers and, with the clues already given to us, deduced that the overall answer is a song. We then attempt a few different things in order to play the song that we have created. All of the attempts end in failure. Shauna decides that it is time to go to bed. I agree and we retire.
Saturday, June 26th, 2004
We wake up anxiously. After having breakfast, I cheerfully take a shower (I hate water, so this is atypical) and get dressed. Then Shauna and I rush over to the con game table where we recalled that there would be a special hint, that morning. Of course, the hint was in cryptogram. Decrypted, it said: "NOW THAT YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS PLAY THEM." This followed my theory of it being music, so Shauna trades some banter with Mike Selinker (the creator of the game) about wishing she had her trombone. He then chuckled, and I suggested that we retreat to the outside so that we could confer with the only other person I knew that would be able to play the music: Tinky. Shauna gave Tink the notes and then Tink said that she'd call back in a while, after she decided what it was. Barely a minute later, she called back with the answer. Shauna and I ran back to the table again, and Mike said, "Is there something you want to tell me?" Shauna then proceeded to sing the song. He then told her that she was correct and that we had won. Yaay! We then took the booty back to the room, took the picture, and had lunch.
Then it was back to the exhibit hall, which seems like a constant magnet for the helpless con lemmings. This time Shauna decided that she was going to finally get to play Ice Towers, after two years of passing up the opportunities. Heck! She figured if a Storm Trooper and a Jawa could do it, then so could she. ^_^ At 1pm, I was under the impression that there would be another Digimon tournament so I ran back to the Bandai booth and found out that they were planning on cancelling the Digimon and only running a Knights of the Zodiac tournament, so I signed up for that instead, and they told me to come back in a half hour. Well, by the time the half hour had past, Shauna had finished her Ice Towers game and went back to the Bandai booth to play in the Navia Dratp tournament of the day. So, by this time, I find out that they decided to have a Digimon tournament after all. I asked if I could drop from Knights to play in digimon, but I found that it would only give both tournaments an odd number of players. So I was implored to stay where I was and hold up the balance, and I obliged them, regretfully.
Shauna finished with a 5th place, much to her dismay, and by some cruel twist of fate, I actually got 1st place in the Knights tournament. Afterward, we yet again floated around the convention hall. We found Luke Ski's booth complete with Luke Ski, so Shauna wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. We also went to the Score booth and picked up some promos (I know only one is shown, just assume multiples). Then we spent the left over time, establishing a firm grip on the Warlord CCG, of which Shauna has many cards. She likes that game. :) Then we were booted out of the convention hall, yet again.
Subsequently, we went back to the con game table to find out if we had won any other prizes (note the blue circles, which were skillfully added, by yours truly). Feeling victorious, Shauna beseeched me to go in the pool and hot tub at the hotel, with her, and for the second time of the day, I did go in the water. *Gasp* Then we went back down to the convention center food court and Shauna had a hamburger and i had a carnelita, which was basically some animal torn to bits and then thrown into a burrito wrap with some rice, beans, and pico de gallo. It was okay, but not great. Then we had some ice cream. It was yummy! When we were done with dinner, we went back up to see The Great Luke Ski in Ballroom 2 for the super 95 minute show. After a long day, we both went back to the room, and Shauna felt that the con had turned back around from disastropy to gloritoriousness. She then flipped through the Warlord cards that she had purchased and we had obtained through demo, and we fell asleep soon after.
Sunday, June 27th, 2004
The last day. We stopped by the con game table at the start of the day, just to say "hi," since they were still sitting there waiting for people to claim their prizes. As we walked down the hall, we noticed that there was a line of people waiting to get autographs from Sean Astin. Then we went into the exhibit hall for the last time this year and mulled around the miniatures, because I had wanted to find a new monk for our campaign, because the figure I was given looks like Mr. Miyagi as a sorceror. So, I found one, purchased it, and then went over to the free painting table, with Shauna, where I picked out a pirate figure to paint. We then spent the rest of the time debating what we wanted to spend the rest of our hard-earned duckets on, seeing as we had only spent money on food and hotels up until this point, really. So, Shauna, after many conversations with the creator, bought the Palabra game that I mentioned earlier. "Scrabble and Poker and Rummy?" Oh, my! We also split the cost of a box of .hack//ENEMY cards, and I bought the Battle of the Bands card game. Around 3pm we left the exhibit hall, never to return again. Moving on to the Ballroom 1 area also known as WizKids land, our mission was to reclaim Matt and leave before 4pm. We all but miserably failed that mission, leaving the convention center about ten to 4pm, and waiting for 5 minutes to get our car out of valet. We then hurried on our merry little way home to the impending bowling league at 8pm, and barely made it on time.
Pah! I did it!
Also, for an alternate perspective, see Shauna's Post
Have a comment? Leave a comment! ^_^
Paxtrix