(no subject)
Right. So CONvergence 2010 is in the can. Past. Over. Done with. 360 more days til the next one. And Gods help me I don't think I was twelve hours-no, check that. I know for an iron clad FACT I wasn't twelve hours- out of the hotel before I was already planning for next year. Hell, I wasn't even in the garage from coming home yet, a drive of maybe 30 minutes when the first idea sparked off.
So, given some stuff that happened last year and that got resurected mere weeks before my beloved convention I was expecting a bad time. Imagine my delighted surprise when the drama was minimal at best. Indeed, one might even say it verged on the trivial. And I'm gettin it out of the way first so I can focus and end on the good stuff.
First, I discovered the hard way just how utterly shite the battery on Em's old phone was. Three calls and it fucking dies. Are. You. Shitting me? Suffice to say that got replaced quickly. Tho the idea of updrading to a phone with camera and video capability does have a certain appeal.
Next, and not in order just in general, I discovered the hard way that the shampoo and conditioner I bought speciffically for Con got left behind when we checked out of Staybridge Suites. More on that in a second. Irritiating, wasteful and inconvenient but nothing to inspire a rage over.
Finally though it happened chronologically first, we discovered that the nice people in charge of the Bloomington Staybridge Suites located across 494 from the Sheraton don't know what the fuck they are talking about. THree different members of my family called the hotel inquiring about shuttle service because Cat wasn't staying with us and walking from Staybridge to the Sheraton is, if anything worse for your continued corporeality than breaking into this house and not leaving at your first and only warning. The general gist of what we were told was shuttles ran either 24/7 or well past midnight. BULL. SHIT. Ro and I went downstairs after running a Firefly RPG til almost 1am. We call the hotel and find out that the shuttle service stops at midnight. This is, to put it mildly, inconvenient. So we call Cat, inform her of the situation and ask her how she'd like us to proceeed. She drives out from our house at one in the effing morning to take us over there. I get to bed at 2am and am back up at 7 whereupon I go downstairs and have a polite but rather emphatic chat with the day manager who proceeeds to do pretty much fuckall for me other than come this = close to calling me a liar to my face on the matter of what we were told about shuttle service. Fortunately there were some rooms opened up in the Sheraton. We snatched one up and spent the rest of the weekend there. Nor were we the only ones to leave Staybridge for that reason. Seriously guys, get your act together. You just lost God knows how much in present and future revenue and there's several very easy fixes to the problem.
On the plus side lessee here.
My games were universally well recieved . Granted, most people who actively look for my games didn't know it was me running them but I've got a fix for that. In future all of my game flyers will have GAMER BOB PRESENTS in all caps, bold letters at the top. Most people hadn't played most of what I brought ant the laughter and fun were epic. One especially memorable moment came when a trio of Spartans entered Milliways and the entire table bellowed "THIS! IS! MILLIWAYS!" Y'know you've done well when you get a fist bump from the Spartans.
Other fun stuff
I ran a ton of games as usual. According to my volunteer card I pulled over thirty hours this year. Scored the obligatory pin, shirt and a really nice metal water bottle out of the deal. Most of the games were very well attended and people generally had a great time. One thing I kept hearing was that people didn't know it was me running them. The significance of this is that I am probably the most well known gaming volunteer at Con. People come to Con SPECIFFICALLY to be in my games. Up til now I've been all about the Munchkin and a lack of Munchkin signs meant that everyone thought I'd bailed on CONvergence, when in point of fact I merely bailed on Steve Jackson for reasons that need no reiteration here. So henceforth I will be putting the phrase GAMER BOB PRESENTS! Atop all my signs in big bold letters. This may cause a couple people who don't like me very much to try and tear them down but I can and WILL lay into anyone I catch doing that shit. My wife works hard on them and those things cost money. They may be disposable but not until end of Con or at least after the events listed upon them.
A trip through the dealers room gave me the chance to make my beloved Ro smile which is always a good thing. We were walking along and she spotted a pocket watch that reminded her of her grandfather. I asked to see it, inquired as to the price and, when I heard it was well within my budget, passed it to Ro, telling the young woman running the table "She'll take it". Y'know that look a woman gives her man when he's done something REALLY good. Like something so heartwarming and sweet and utterly unexpected that if the circumstances allowed her to rip off his clothes and have her way with him RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT she'd do so? I got that look. That means I win. Nuff said.
At one point we were over in the second tower hanging with Jeri when we noticed something. A small yellow ball with two feathers in it was boobbing up and down in the air. Someone had made a golden snitch and was fishing for geeks from the eighth floor balcony. Much fun watching that. As was sitting around, chatting with Jeri before going to see as much of Sherlock homes as we could before passing out.
One really awesome part of Con was the fact that a local Battletech group got their hands on half a dozen cockpit simulators and was running them all weekend long. I bought have a dozen tickets and won five of my six matches. A lead foot and a heavy hand on the trigger are your friends. In one match they decided to throw a prize out and that was one of my winning matches so I scored some cool six sided dice off of it.
I was also part of Con history. I am a member of Fetlife. FL is a social networking site for people in the BDSM lifestyle and a surprising number of attendees are members of the site. So one of the members decided to organise a meetup. THIRTY FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP. I think we can call the first annual Fetlife CONvergence meetup a success of the rousing persuasion.
Along the way this weekend I made several cool new friends, most of them a decade my junior but hey. you're only as young as you feel right? And while todays decision to skip working out due to a need to make breakfast, shower and compile this overdue missive is leaving me with an assortment of aches I'd just as soon not be experiencing the now I still generally consider myself a 20-something man who just happens to have been born in 1971.
All in all it was a great Con and I am very much looking forward to next year. If you're reading this and had an equally good time, I'm glad to hear it and look forward to seeing you next year. If you're reading this and don't attend CONvergence I urge you in the strongest possible terms to do so. It's a terrific time with something to do for everyone with any kind of geek in them. Y'all have a good day. I got a shower to take and rice to make.
Cheers!
Bob out
So, given some stuff that happened last year and that got resurected mere weeks before my beloved convention I was expecting a bad time. Imagine my delighted surprise when the drama was minimal at best. Indeed, one might even say it verged on the trivial. And I'm gettin it out of the way first so I can focus and end on the good stuff.
First, I discovered the hard way just how utterly shite the battery on Em's old phone was. Three calls and it fucking dies. Are. You. Shitting me? Suffice to say that got replaced quickly. Tho the idea of updrading to a phone with camera and video capability does have a certain appeal.
Next, and not in order just in general, I discovered the hard way that the shampoo and conditioner I bought speciffically for Con got left behind when we checked out of Staybridge Suites. More on that in a second. Irritiating, wasteful and inconvenient but nothing to inspire a rage over.
Finally though it happened chronologically first, we discovered that the nice people in charge of the Bloomington Staybridge Suites located across 494 from the Sheraton don't know what the fuck they are talking about. THree different members of my family called the hotel inquiring about shuttle service because Cat wasn't staying with us and walking from Staybridge to the Sheraton is, if anything worse for your continued corporeality than breaking into this house and not leaving at your first and only warning. The general gist of what we were told was shuttles ran either 24/7 or well past midnight. BULL. SHIT. Ro and I went downstairs after running a Firefly RPG til almost 1am. We call the hotel and find out that the shuttle service stops at midnight. This is, to put it mildly, inconvenient. So we call Cat, inform her of the situation and ask her how she'd like us to proceeed. She drives out from our house at one in the effing morning to take us over there. I get to bed at 2am and am back up at 7 whereupon I go downstairs and have a polite but rather emphatic chat with the day manager who proceeeds to do pretty much fuckall for me other than come this = close to calling me a liar to my face on the matter of what we were told about shuttle service. Fortunately there were some rooms opened up in the Sheraton. We snatched one up and spent the rest of the weekend there. Nor were we the only ones to leave Staybridge for that reason. Seriously guys, get your act together. You just lost God knows how much in present and future revenue and there's several very easy fixes to the problem.
On the plus side lessee here.
My games were universally well recieved . Granted, most people who actively look for my games didn't know it was me running them but I've got a fix for that. In future all of my game flyers will have GAMER BOB PRESENTS in all caps, bold letters at the top. Most people hadn't played most of what I brought ant the laughter and fun were epic. One especially memorable moment came when a trio of Spartans entered Milliways and the entire table bellowed "THIS! IS! MILLIWAYS!" Y'know you've done well when you get a fist bump from the Spartans.
Other fun stuff
I ran a ton of games as usual. According to my volunteer card I pulled over thirty hours this year. Scored the obligatory pin, shirt and a really nice metal water bottle out of the deal. Most of the games were very well attended and people generally had a great time. One thing I kept hearing was that people didn't know it was me running them. The significance of this is that I am probably the most well known gaming volunteer at Con. People come to Con SPECIFFICALLY to be in my games. Up til now I've been all about the Munchkin and a lack of Munchkin signs meant that everyone thought I'd bailed on CONvergence, when in point of fact I merely bailed on Steve Jackson for reasons that need no reiteration here. So henceforth I will be putting the phrase GAMER BOB PRESENTS! Atop all my signs in big bold letters. This may cause a couple people who don't like me very much to try and tear them down but I can and WILL lay into anyone I catch doing that shit. My wife works hard on them and those things cost money. They may be disposable but not until end of Con or at least after the events listed upon them.
A trip through the dealers room gave me the chance to make my beloved Ro smile which is always a good thing. We were walking along and she spotted a pocket watch that reminded her of her grandfather. I asked to see it, inquired as to the price and, when I heard it was well within my budget, passed it to Ro, telling the young woman running the table "She'll take it". Y'know that look a woman gives her man when he's done something REALLY good. Like something so heartwarming and sweet and utterly unexpected that if the circumstances allowed her to rip off his clothes and have her way with him RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT she'd do so? I got that look. That means I win. Nuff said.
At one point we were over in the second tower hanging with Jeri when we noticed something. A small yellow ball with two feathers in it was boobbing up and down in the air. Someone had made a golden snitch and was fishing for geeks from the eighth floor balcony. Much fun watching that. As was sitting around, chatting with Jeri before going to see as much of Sherlock homes as we could before passing out.
One really awesome part of Con was the fact that a local Battletech group got their hands on half a dozen cockpit simulators and was running them all weekend long. I bought have a dozen tickets and won five of my six matches. A lead foot and a heavy hand on the trigger are your friends. In one match they decided to throw a prize out and that was one of my winning matches so I scored some cool six sided dice off of it.
I was also part of Con history. I am a member of Fetlife. FL is a social networking site for people in the BDSM lifestyle and a surprising number of attendees are members of the site. So one of the members decided to organise a meetup. THIRTY FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP. I think we can call the first annual Fetlife CONvergence meetup a success of the rousing persuasion.
Along the way this weekend I made several cool new friends, most of them a decade my junior but hey. you're only as young as you feel right? And while todays decision to skip working out due to a need to make breakfast, shower and compile this overdue missive is leaving me with an assortment of aches I'd just as soon not be experiencing the now I still generally consider myself a 20-something man who just happens to have been born in 1971.
All in all it was a great Con and I am very much looking forward to next year. If you're reading this and had an equally good time, I'm glad to hear it and look forward to seeing you next year. If you're reading this and don't attend CONvergence I urge you in the strongest possible terms to do so. It's a terrific time with something to do for everyone with any kind of geek in them. Y'all have a good day. I got a shower to take and rice to make.
Cheers!
Bob out