Second part of the GenCon post
Should've checked to see if it had all made it on first. Apparently there is a limit to just how much can appear in one post.
I get the ability to report people and equipment to planets (but not ships which sucks) while he gets to start out with a ship which naturally, he chooses the Defiant. I'm still playing my Highlander deck (although I add in 3 Togaran's to help get around Whispers in the Dark) and my dilemma pile of randomness is keeping me in the game but it still isn't enough to go against his dilemmas as well as the Defiant's text. There's was little I could do to stop him.
0-1
Race to the Alpha Quadrant - Round 2 - Opponent: Andrea
Deck - Federation Mutants
I get hand size reduced by two while she gets something else, I can't remember just what offhand. She ends up getting the early lead but gets stymied as I solve my Sensitive Search and Host Metaphasic in rapid succession, thereby ensuring her wrath for a third time. Ivo had played her the round before and had gotten the no staffing requirements for ships so he was using his one-person ships to capture many of her people with Standard Cardassian Procedure so between the two of us, we were going to die later. We weren't sure just how we were going to die, we were just going to die.
1-1
Race to the Alpha Quadrant - Round 3 - Opponent: James or William
Deck - Klingon Riker
My dilemma pile is going to suck big time against his Riker but I luckily got to select the cards in my opening hand while he gets to add +1 to the cost of his non-unique personnel. Thinking that I might have a pretty good chance at this, I have my people set up with ship, attempting with nine by turn 3. I have the first mission done but he gets his shortly thereafter and is back at his HQ. I use 10th Anniversary Data to name Meraht so that I could get him not to play it but that would later prove to be my undoing. Next turn, he plays the Rickster and proceeeds to take out IAP thanks to discarding T'Vis and using the Promise on him to get around Drumhead. I had gotten through two mission and was trying to solve my space mission but it just wasn't working for me. He goes over to Brute Force and attempts with eight which leaves me with no way to stop three people, making it either all or none. I try Telepathic dilemma which he uses the Riker trick, discarding Meraht and playing Promise to get the Exobiology necessary to solve and he uses Riker's skill to gain two Treachery from his forgotten Bregeth to get around Dangerous Liasions. Even afterwards, there was nothing I could've done to stop him.
1-2
I try to call the Greyhound station for John because he wasn't sure where it was at the time but no one answered the phone after I let it ring at least ten times. So I wished him luck and, after managing to save a Klingon Riker from the Burning Riker pile in England along with a lot of other cards (plus trading an Escape for a number of useful cards - who knew that Escape was so popular?), I leave the tournament hall for the last time (once I remember to take my backpack, cards and everything else I had garnered up to that point) I see Matt Kirk and tell him to have a nice trip and that I might be at GenCon SoCal this December which he says that if I need a place to stay, let him know. Now I just need to figure out if I can afford it or not.
I head to the con hall, grabbing as much free stuff as I could, buying a few trade paperbacks for the flight home (League of Extrordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2, JLA - And Justice for All, JLA - The Obsidian Age and The Ultimates Vol. 2), I manage to make my way to the Decipher booth. Tobin is just getting done with a demo when I show up and say, "Well, I got about fifteen minutes, why not show me what this Wars game is all about?" He says sure and proceeds to show me the game. It's not a bad game although I can definitely see it as being something I could never get into. The whole, I beat you by this much, brings it to a whole new level of uncomfortability. What can I say, I'm not that competitive. The demo finishes after they turn off the lights, closing the con hall. I walk over and get my demo stuff for both Wars and a faster-than-light Trek demo before heading out of the con.
I bump into Rhia on the way out who was oddly enough, looking for me. I proceed to go over to a table of her friends who are partaking in some strange, pastel-colored ice cream. I chat a little and listen a lot as they're talking about whatever is on their minds. It was interesting although when I'm in a group I don't know and don't have a lot to say due to not exactly knowing intimately what they're talking about, I tend to be quiet. I did hand Rhia her flower that I got from buying the Fluxx cards for Chris and Andrea which she proceeded to put between her breasts. Naturally, some things need to be photographed so I proceeded to do just that. After all, this is GenCon, I need to photograph these things. I have to break off the chat though as I wasn't sure what people were doing for dinner but not before being invited to play a game of D&D later that evening.
As I leave the con, I can't help but notice a booth of attractive women handing out free stuff and looking really good doing it. Turns out that they were part of the Colts cheerleaders and that they were handing out free Colts hats in exchange for filling out a survey for a truck dealership. Knowing full well that one, I'll never buy a truck or car from the state of Indiana and two, I can't say no to beautiful women, I fill out the survey and take the barely wearable hat before leaving her smile. I don't manage to pull out my camera though as I didn't want to interrupt their work. I make my way back to the hotel while walking through what looks to be Colts Central - More cheerleaders, games, loud recorded music of Outkast, etc. fill the senses as I walk by, not losing a chance to see more attractive people. What can I say, I like to watch.
I make it back to the hotel room where Ivo is watching Rockford Files which, amid reading my League trade paperback, I can't help but make MST3K comments about (MST3K = Mystery Science Theater 3000, in case you were wondering) There's just something about 70's-80's television that just cries out for being made fun of. The channel then switches to Mutant X and then, Andromeda. Andrea wanted to go to the pool and so we all went (although Ivo didn't bring a bathing suit so he just watched) If there's one fault to the Omni Severin, it's their changing rooms which are smaller than many closets and a secondary fault is the fact that their pool was definitely appearing as an afterthought with how small it was. It was rather painful to take off the sunglasses in this room with its strange white/green light structure but I adapted eventually. It was just nice to see Chris and Andrea finally have some time together, even though they reminded me of kids, it was still a welcomed comfort in many ways.
Talk eventually turns to food and where to consume it. My suggestion of Hooters, while funny and right across the street from the hotel, was unfortunately shot down so we headed out and eventually ended up in prison. Alcatraz was a dark albeit lively place with a lot of televisions around where we were at, all tuned into either ESPN News or the Olympics, either of which was interesting to watch while waiting for our food to arrive. Nothing says watch me like women in bathing suits (unfortunately, beach volleyball was already done - Damn were the American women hot) or the agony of watching men do gymnastics (We're not supposed to bend like that, I'm quite sure of that.) The waiter ends up sorta challenges me into asking for dessert after ordering a full rack of ribs. Personally, I thought that they were overpriced (they tasted fine albeit a little less saucy for my tastes but they came off the bone well) but oh well, I downed the two pounds of meat in no time and was ready for dessert, much to the waiter's surprise. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything I wanted so I went without. After dinner, I headed over to the Hyatt where Rhia and the game of D&D was being held.
Back into the strange-shaped hotel room with one bed, the game eventually gets started although there's more talking about completely unrelated things compared to actually playing. I, being a newbie in the whole D&D realm, sorta quietly go about making my character while everyone else has already got their concrete characteristics down and are just rolling for attributes. It wasn't as though it wasn't fun (I rather like making up characters and doing what I will with them), it just doesn't have the instant gratification or intense strategy that I get with playing card games. Maybe it was just the late hour and I was fighting exhaustion or what but I felt sorta detached from the whole game, interjecting rather venomous commentary whenever I felt like it. We had to stop the game early though as I had to get back to my hotel room and apparently, there's some kind of a police sweep which, if you're out past a certain hour, you can get fined or something like that. So I took the skybridge to the parking garage, then down the stairs to the bottom floor, before scurrying over to the side entrance of the hotel which was thankfully unlocked, making it up to my room and promptly passing out on the floor once again.
MONDAY -
Chris and Andrea left first (the drive home is a wee bit long although they were going to Niagra Falls first in order to celebrate their wedding anniversary) which resulted in giving back all the stuff that was borrowed and everything else being accounted for. There was huggage before they left. Ivo and I went back and forth between Women's Field Hockey and Attack of the Clones on one of the pay channels. It comes to my attention while putting away my uncut sheet that it won't fit in any of my bags. Knowing that there was at least one place in the mall next door which sells posters, I didn't think it was an overestimation that they'd have poster tubes. So, after checking out, I and my three bags full of stuff, go off in search of a Kinko's which the front desk person at the hotel recommends. She doesn't mention the fact that it's a long ways to walk there on foot. So, I try the Greyhound packing service desk which has the counterlady looking at me like I spoke Armenian when I asked about a poster tube. So I go to the mall and I must've been quite an interesting sight - Trench coat, sunglasses, three large bags full of who knows what. I could tell that mall security was keeping an eye on me. I make it up to the place I had in mind after the other place never opens up only to discover that they don't carry poster tubes in the size that I need. He does wrap some paper around the sheet and tapes the paper so that it doesn't unfurl. Seeing as that's the best that I can do, I wait for a phone call to my cell, waiting for my ride to pick me up.
I get the phone call I'm waiting for and head over to the Hyatt where I wait until Rhia and her friends show up. As I get into the car, I see this absolutely adorable tiny kitten, smaller than my hand in the arms of the lady upfront. Turns out that, after our game the night before, they were driving back to their hotel when a flash of white appeared in front of them. They slam on the breaks and get out of the van to discover this tiny orphan kitty in the middle of the street. Naturally, they took him back to their hotel, feeding him, bathing him to get rid of the fleas and getting him to go to the bathroom before taking him in the van. The couple will eventually drive back home to Ohio before figuring out what to do with him. He's just the cutest little feline with tiny everything, simply adorable.
Eventually, after a stop at Taco Bell for food pre-airport, Rhia and I are dropped off at the airport and head inside the terminal. I try in vain to look for a shipping center or something but nothing doing so we walk through security after checking in our bags. Our flight from Indianapolis to Atlanta is definitely full and gets delayed while we're on the plane due to stoppages at other airports. The person at the desk is offering either $200 off or a free round-trip ticket for those who don't mind waiting for a later flight. If I was flying by myself, I'd take that up in a heartbeat since I wasn't in a great deal of a hurry plus I could always call and tell people that I was going to be delayed. That wasn't an option though as I knew that Rhia wanted to get home and that her time with the feline made her miss her Puppy even more.
By the time that we arrive in Atlanta and make it through their tram system to get to the T Concourse (which doesn't stand for Terrific by the way), we were doing pretty well and was looking forward to having a real meal on the plane for the ride back, thereby keeping our costs down. That is, until we read the sign in front of the counter. I don't know when this happened but there's no way that I'm going to pay for airplane food, especially not eight bucks for it. Unfortunately, by the tiime we realized that they were doing this to us, we couldn't walk back to the other end of the concourse where they had real meals so instead, we got some gum, she got a sandwich and I got some roasted peanuts and some Reese's Pieces before getting on the plane.
The flight home had a movie on it called Mean Girls yet they don't even offer us headphones in order to hear it, just drop the screens in the middle of the plane and project it. I know that it's teen sap, that I would've been bored by the Lizzie McGuirism of the tween/teen female gender but at least when I mock something, I wanted to be able to hear what I'm mocking so I have more material to go on. Eventually though, the movie ends and I go back to my book while fighting off passing out. I make due with my peanuts, finally getting the nuts I so desperately craved and between that and the pretzels and soda, I was just thirsty instead.
We fly in and I know that my vacation is really over (especially since I had to be at work in about 10 hours and I'm still two hours away from home) but I hang out with Rhia until we get our bags off the carousel. We hug and I was missing her already but that happens as they go to Anthony's car and I get picked up by my ride home, spotting them through the four lanes of chaos that is PDX's arrivial section. Stopping to get a large Barq's, I get the caffeine I need in order to make it home awake enough to get downstairs, unpack and pass out in a bed for the first time almost a week.
And that's pretty much everything except for the obligatory thanks and disses -
Thanks to Rhia for being the most beautiful and charming flying companion a guy could ask for.
Thanks to everyone who gave me their unwanted commons and uncommons, they won't go to waste as I re-establish my collection.
Thanks to Chris for picking the Omni Severin to stay at, even though you were hardly ever there.
Thanks to Andrea for being a good sport about me beating you, for being an evil Fluxx player and for being a really good friend.
Thanks to Ivo for knowing more about Spaceballs than even I and for coming out to GenCon for the first time.
Thanks to Tristian and Dan Bojo for letting me exchange my box of Mount Doom for 2E Premiere
Thanks to Eve and Dave Bowling for making losing ship staffing and playing against them incredibly fun.
Thanks to the Hines brothers for keeping the phenomeon known as Austin Powers strong in the ways of the Force.
And an overall Thanks to everyone at GenCon who made the experience an overall enjoyable one.
And the disses -
IndyGo for having a confusing and unhelpful website.
Delta for charging for airplane food.
Myself for not flirting as much as I wanted to due to lack of confidence around the female gender.
I get the ability to report people and equipment to planets (but not ships which sucks) while he gets to start out with a ship which naturally, he chooses the Defiant. I'm still playing my Highlander deck (although I add in 3 Togaran's to help get around Whispers in the Dark) and my dilemma pile of randomness is keeping me in the game but it still isn't enough to go against his dilemmas as well as the Defiant's text. There's was little I could do to stop him.
0-1
Race to the Alpha Quadrant - Round 2 - Opponent: Andrea
Deck - Federation Mutants
I get hand size reduced by two while she gets something else, I can't remember just what offhand. She ends up getting the early lead but gets stymied as I solve my Sensitive Search and Host Metaphasic in rapid succession, thereby ensuring her wrath for a third time. Ivo had played her the round before and had gotten the no staffing requirements for ships so he was using his one-person ships to capture many of her people with Standard Cardassian Procedure so between the two of us, we were going to die later. We weren't sure just how we were going to die, we were just going to die.
1-1
Race to the Alpha Quadrant - Round 3 - Opponent: James or William
Deck - Klingon Riker
My dilemma pile is going to suck big time against his Riker but I luckily got to select the cards in my opening hand while he gets to add +1 to the cost of his non-unique personnel. Thinking that I might have a pretty good chance at this, I have my people set up with ship, attempting with nine by turn 3. I have the first mission done but he gets his shortly thereafter and is back at his HQ. I use 10th Anniversary Data to name Meraht so that I could get him not to play it but that would later prove to be my undoing. Next turn, he plays the Rickster and proceeeds to take out IAP thanks to discarding T'Vis and using the Promise on him to get around Drumhead. I had gotten through two mission and was trying to solve my space mission but it just wasn't working for me. He goes over to Brute Force and attempts with eight which leaves me with no way to stop three people, making it either all or none. I try Telepathic dilemma which he uses the Riker trick, discarding Meraht and playing Promise to get the Exobiology necessary to solve and he uses Riker's skill to gain two Treachery from his forgotten Bregeth to get around Dangerous Liasions. Even afterwards, there was nothing I could've done to stop him.
1-2
I try to call the Greyhound station for John because he wasn't sure where it was at the time but no one answered the phone after I let it ring at least ten times. So I wished him luck and, after managing to save a Klingon Riker from the Burning Riker pile in England along with a lot of other cards (plus trading an Escape for a number of useful cards - who knew that Escape was so popular?), I leave the tournament hall for the last time (once I remember to take my backpack, cards and everything else I had garnered up to that point) I see Matt Kirk and tell him to have a nice trip and that I might be at GenCon SoCal this December which he says that if I need a place to stay, let him know. Now I just need to figure out if I can afford it or not.
I head to the con hall, grabbing as much free stuff as I could, buying a few trade paperbacks for the flight home (League of Extrordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2, JLA - And Justice for All, JLA - The Obsidian Age and The Ultimates Vol. 2), I manage to make my way to the Decipher booth. Tobin is just getting done with a demo when I show up and say, "Well, I got about fifteen minutes, why not show me what this Wars game is all about?" He says sure and proceeds to show me the game. It's not a bad game although I can definitely see it as being something I could never get into. The whole, I beat you by this much, brings it to a whole new level of uncomfortability. What can I say, I'm not that competitive. The demo finishes after they turn off the lights, closing the con hall. I walk over and get my demo stuff for both Wars and a faster-than-light Trek demo before heading out of the con.
I bump into Rhia on the way out who was oddly enough, looking for me. I proceed to go over to a table of her friends who are partaking in some strange, pastel-colored ice cream. I chat a little and listen a lot as they're talking about whatever is on their minds. It was interesting although when I'm in a group I don't know and don't have a lot to say due to not exactly knowing intimately what they're talking about, I tend to be quiet. I did hand Rhia her flower that I got from buying the Fluxx cards for Chris and Andrea which she proceeded to put between her breasts. Naturally, some things need to be photographed so I proceeded to do just that. After all, this is GenCon, I need to photograph these things. I have to break off the chat though as I wasn't sure what people were doing for dinner but not before being invited to play a game of D&D later that evening.
As I leave the con, I can't help but notice a booth of attractive women handing out free stuff and looking really good doing it. Turns out that they were part of the Colts cheerleaders and that they were handing out free Colts hats in exchange for filling out a survey for a truck dealership. Knowing full well that one, I'll never buy a truck or car from the state of Indiana and two, I can't say no to beautiful women, I fill out the survey and take the barely wearable hat before leaving her smile. I don't manage to pull out my camera though as I didn't want to interrupt their work. I make my way back to the hotel while walking through what looks to be Colts Central - More cheerleaders, games, loud recorded music of Outkast, etc. fill the senses as I walk by, not losing a chance to see more attractive people. What can I say, I like to watch.
I make it back to the hotel room where Ivo is watching Rockford Files which, amid reading my League trade paperback, I can't help but make MST3K comments about (MST3K = Mystery Science Theater 3000, in case you were wondering) There's just something about 70's-80's television that just cries out for being made fun of. The channel then switches to Mutant X and then, Andromeda. Andrea wanted to go to the pool and so we all went (although Ivo didn't bring a bathing suit so he just watched) If there's one fault to the Omni Severin, it's their changing rooms which are smaller than many closets and a secondary fault is the fact that their pool was definitely appearing as an afterthought with how small it was. It was rather painful to take off the sunglasses in this room with its strange white/green light structure but I adapted eventually. It was just nice to see Chris and Andrea finally have some time together, even though they reminded me of kids, it was still a welcomed comfort in many ways.
Talk eventually turns to food and where to consume it. My suggestion of Hooters, while funny and right across the street from the hotel, was unfortunately shot down so we headed out and eventually ended up in prison. Alcatraz was a dark albeit lively place with a lot of televisions around where we were at, all tuned into either ESPN News or the Olympics, either of which was interesting to watch while waiting for our food to arrive. Nothing says watch me like women in bathing suits (unfortunately, beach volleyball was already done - Damn were the American women hot) or the agony of watching men do gymnastics (We're not supposed to bend like that, I'm quite sure of that.) The waiter ends up sorta challenges me into asking for dessert after ordering a full rack of ribs. Personally, I thought that they were overpriced (they tasted fine albeit a little less saucy for my tastes but they came off the bone well) but oh well, I downed the two pounds of meat in no time and was ready for dessert, much to the waiter's surprise. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything I wanted so I went without. After dinner, I headed over to the Hyatt where Rhia and the game of D&D was being held.
Back into the strange-shaped hotel room with one bed, the game eventually gets started although there's more talking about completely unrelated things compared to actually playing. I, being a newbie in the whole D&D realm, sorta quietly go about making my character while everyone else has already got their concrete characteristics down and are just rolling for attributes. It wasn't as though it wasn't fun (I rather like making up characters and doing what I will with them), it just doesn't have the instant gratification or intense strategy that I get with playing card games. Maybe it was just the late hour and I was fighting exhaustion or what but I felt sorta detached from the whole game, interjecting rather venomous commentary whenever I felt like it. We had to stop the game early though as I had to get back to my hotel room and apparently, there's some kind of a police sweep which, if you're out past a certain hour, you can get fined or something like that. So I took the skybridge to the parking garage, then down the stairs to the bottom floor, before scurrying over to the side entrance of the hotel which was thankfully unlocked, making it up to my room and promptly passing out on the floor once again.
MONDAY -
Chris and Andrea left first (the drive home is a wee bit long although they were going to Niagra Falls first in order to celebrate their wedding anniversary) which resulted in giving back all the stuff that was borrowed and everything else being accounted for. There was huggage before they left. Ivo and I went back and forth between Women's Field Hockey and Attack of the Clones on one of the pay channels. It comes to my attention while putting away my uncut sheet that it won't fit in any of my bags. Knowing that there was at least one place in the mall next door which sells posters, I didn't think it was an overestimation that they'd have poster tubes. So, after checking out, I and my three bags full of stuff, go off in search of a Kinko's which the front desk person at the hotel recommends. She doesn't mention the fact that it's a long ways to walk there on foot. So, I try the Greyhound packing service desk which has the counterlady looking at me like I spoke Armenian when I asked about a poster tube. So I go to the mall and I must've been quite an interesting sight - Trench coat, sunglasses, three large bags full of who knows what. I could tell that mall security was keeping an eye on me. I make it up to the place I had in mind after the other place never opens up only to discover that they don't carry poster tubes in the size that I need. He does wrap some paper around the sheet and tapes the paper so that it doesn't unfurl. Seeing as that's the best that I can do, I wait for a phone call to my cell, waiting for my ride to pick me up.
I get the phone call I'm waiting for and head over to the Hyatt where I wait until Rhia and her friends show up. As I get into the car, I see this absolutely adorable tiny kitten, smaller than my hand in the arms of the lady upfront. Turns out that, after our game the night before, they were driving back to their hotel when a flash of white appeared in front of them. They slam on the breaks and get out of the van to discover this tiny orphan kitty in the middle of the street. Naturally, they took him back to their hotel, feeding him, bathing him to get rid of the fleas and getting him to go to the bathroom before taking him in the van. The couple will eventually drive back home to Ohio before figuring out what to do with him. He's just the cutest little feline with tiny everything, simply adorable.
Eventually, after a stop at Taco Bell for food pre-airport, Rhia and I are dropped off at the airport and head inside the terminal. I try in vain to look for a shipping center or something but nothing doing so we walk through security after checking in our bags. Our flight from Indianapolis to Atlanta is definitely full and gets delayed while we're on the plane due to stoppages at other airports. The person at the desk is offering either $200 off or a free round-trip ticket for those who don't mind waiting for a later flight. If I was flying by myself, I'd take that up in a heartbeat since I wasn't in a great deal of a hurry plus I could always call and tell people that I was going to be delayed. That wasn't an option though as I knew that Rhia wanted to get home and that her time with the feline made her miss her Puppy even more.
By the time that we arrive in Atlanta and make it through their tram system to get to the T Concourse (which doesn't stand for Terrific by the way), we were doing pretty well and was looking forward to having a real meal on the plane for the ride back, thereby keeping our costs down. That is, until we read the sign in front of the counter. I don't know when this happened but there's no way that I'm going to pay for airplane food, especially not eight bucks for it. Unfortunately, by the tiime we realized that they were doing this to us, we couldn't walk back to the other end of the concourse where they had real meals so instead, we got some gum, she got a sandwich and I got some roasted peanuts and some Reese's Pieces before getting on the plane.
The flight home had a movie on it called Mean Girls yet they don't even offer us headphones in order to hear it, just drop the screens in the middle of the plane and project it. I know that it's teen sap, that I would've been bored by the Lizzie McGuirism of the tween/teen female gender but at least when I mock something, I wanted to be able to hear what I'm mocking so I have more material to go on. Eventually though, the movie ends and I go back to my book while fighting off passing out. I make due with my peanuts, finally getting the nuts I so desperately craved and between that and the pretzels and soda, I was just thirsty instead.
We fly in and I know that my vacation is really over (especially since I had to be at work in about 10 hours and I'm still two hours away from home) but I hang out with Rhia until we get our bags off the carousel. We hug and I was missing her already but that happens as they go to Anthony's car and I get picked up by my ride home, spotting them through the four lanes of chaos that is PDX's arrivial section. Stopping to get a large Barq's, I get the caffeine I need in order to make it home awake enough to get downstairs, unpack and pass out in a bed for the first time almost a week.
And that's pretty much everything except for the obligatory thanks and disses -
Thanks to Rhia for being the most beautiful and charming flying companion a guy could ask for.
Thanks to everyone who gave me their unwanted commons and uncommons, they won't go to waste as I re-establish my collection.
Thanks to Chris for picking the Omni Severin to stay at, even though you were hardly ever there.
Thanks to Andrea for being a good sport about me beating you, for being an evil Fluxx player and for being a really good friend.
Thanks to Ivo for knowing more about Spaceballs than even I and for coming out to GenCon for the first time.
Thanks to Tristian and Dan Bojo for letting me exchange my box of Mount Doom for 2E Premiere
Thanks to Eve and Dave Bowling for making losing ship staffing and playing against them incredibly fun.
Thanks to the Hines brothers for keeping the phenomeon known as Austin Powers strong in the ways of the Force.
And an overall Thanks to everyone at GenCon who made the experience an overall enjoyable one.
And the disses -
IndyGo for having a confusing and unhelpful website.
Delta for charging for airplane food.
Myself for not flirting as much as I wanted to due to lack of confidence around the female gender.