Gen Con update for Tuesday
Getting There
Well, it's been interesting so far. I got out of work at 3, but because of some copying of things, bindery, decal-placing and such, I didn't get out until almost 5. But that's okay, I kinda thought that might happen, which is why I didn't tell them I'd work until 5pm. I got some money out of the bank, filled up some gas in the car's tank and headed home. Packing didn't take too long and I got on the road by 6.
I took I96 to 69, and since I'd missed rush-hour, even the construction zones were a breeze... keeping at a pretty constant pace of between 70 and 80mph with the flow of traffic. I made it to Indianapolis in 4 hours and 15 minutes, which is fantastic. :)
However, there is a truck stop/food location called the AA Travelers or something with a Burger King, Popeye's Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. We have stopped there before, but I don't remember HIGHWAY ROBBERY... $2.50 for a Whopper Jr.? REALLY? F-you.
Parking
Well, when you're looking at 7 nights of parking, $25/night just isn't going to cut it, if you don't have to. Fortunately, I was directed to White River Parking, not 2 blocks from the hotel, where it's $10/24-hour period. Technically it's parking for the Indiana State Museum, but heck... it's cheaper than anything else in town that's covered and secured. :D I crashed pretty soon after meeting my roomate.
Tuesday
Today was... well, there are words for it, but I'm sure they're are better words outside of the English language.
We learned today that A) The folders that should have all of the companies information, badges and lists of badges were not assembled in time, or in any coherent way... in fact, it looks (to me) like someone passed the job off to folks who weren't familiar with the system, and so we had some without badges, some without lists, some with some badges, or incomplete lists, unfinished paperwork, or nothing but the original contract. In addition to that, the new RUBI registration system (at least on our end) is a nuisence, but on top of that, our "accounting" system doesn't allow booths to be purchased with badges, unable to purchase badges without an account person there and a whole lot of other little problems. Oh, and our awesome label maker that was going to make our lives so much easier?... well, the rolls of labels came in and they don't work with the machines! So we're back to printing on sheets (meaning, we have to set them up in a Word doc for the spaces that aren't already printed/peeled each time.) Ugh. Fortunately, Tuesdays are very slow and we were able to work around it and learn the system over the day... but tomorrow? Several hundred people will want everything THEN AND NOW and there will be two lines, etc. Ugh. Thank you, RUBI (you bitch.)
After the 8 hours of work, we had our pre-con meeting. Afterwards I headed over to the R.A.M. where I picked up the new shirt for this year (Well, I picked up the Sweet Retribution shirt, they have 2 or 3 other shirts for the 25th Anniversary of Dragonlance, but I liked the graphics of the D.R. better, even if I don't drink the beer.)
So now I'm sitting over at the sports bar in the Marriott, eating a Cuban sam'ich and enjoying some downtime. Should I be sleeping, seeing as I have to be up at 6:15am so that I can be on shift at 7am?... probably, but, damnit... I'm enjoying myself and gonna let the laptop's battery decide when it's time to retire.
Well, it's been interesting so far. I got out of work at 3, but because of some copying of things, bindery, decal-placing and such, I didn't get out until almost 5. But that's okay, I kinda thought that might happen, which is why I didn't tell them I'd work until 5pm. I got some money out of the bank, filled up some gas in the car's tank and headed home. Packing didn't take too long and I got on the road by 6.
I took I96 to 69, and since I'd missed rush-hour, even the construction zones were a breeze... keeping at a pretty constant pace of between 70 and 80mph with the flow of traffic. I made it to Indianapolis in 4 hours and 15 minutes, which is fantastic. :)
However, there is a truck stop/food location called the AA Travelers or something with a Burger King, Popeye's Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. We have stopped there before, but I don't remember HIGHWAY ROBBERY... $2.50 for a Whopper Jr.? REALLY? F-you.
Parking
Well, when you're looking at 7 nights of parking, $25/night just isn't going to cut it, if you don't have to. Fortunately, I was directed to White River Parking, not 2 blocks from the hotel, where it's $10/24-hour period. Technically it's parking for the Indiana State Museum, but heck... it's cheaper than anything else in town that's covered and secured. :D I crashed pretty soon after meeting my roomate.
Tuesday
Today was... well, there are words for it, but I'm sure they're are better words outside of the English language.
We learned today that A) The folders that should have all of the companies information, badges and lists of badges were not assembled in time, or in any coherent way... in fact, it looks (to me) like someone passed the job off to folks who weren't familiar with the system, and so we had some without badges, some without lists, some with some badges, or incomplete lists, unfinished paperwork, or nothing but the original contract. In addition to that, the new RUBI registration system (at least on our end) is a nuisence, but on top of that, our "accounting" system doesn't allow booths to be purchased with badges, unable to purchase badges without an account person there and a whole lot of other little problems. Oh, and our awesome label maker that was going to make our lives so much easier?... well, the rolls of labels came in and they don't work with the machines! So we're back to printing on sheets (meaning, we have to set them up in a Word doc for the spaces that aren't already printed/peeled each time.) Ugh. Fortunately, Tuesdays are very slow and we were able to work around it and learn the system over the day... but tomorrow? Several hundred people will want everything THEN AND NOW and there will be two lines, etc. Ugh. Thank you, RUBI (you bitch.)
After the 8 hours of work, we had our pre-con meeting. Afterwards I headed over to the R.A.M. where I picked up the new shirt for this year (Well, I picked up the Sweet Retribution shirt, they have 2 or 3 other shirts for the 25th Anniversary of Dragonlance, but I liked the graphics of the D.R. better, even if I don't drink the beer.)
So now I'm sitting over at the sports bar in the Marriott, eating a Cuban sam'ich and enjoying some downtime. Should I be sleeping, seeing as I have to be up at 6:15am so that I can be on shift at 7am?... probably, but, damnit... I'm enjoying myself and gonna let the laptop's battery decide when it's time to retire.