In the mail today I received a letter from the company I work for addressed to Some Random Girl. Of course I'm not Some Random Girl so I think this both strange and ironic being that it came from my own workplace.
I then arrive at my door to find an envelope from my apartment complex addressed to Some Random Couple. I don't have a roommate (to my knowledge) nor am I married (to my knowledge).
All of this makes me wonder - do I still live here? Did the bodysnatchers arrive and they're just saving me for last? Alternate universes collided and my apartment is now the wormhole or event horizon or whatevertheheck term it is for where alternate universes intersect?
E.T. phone home...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Blue Days
I don't mean sad days. Or days with bright blue skies.
I mean Outlook Blue.
For those that don't use Microsoft Outlook, when you have an appointment on your calendar the default disposition for that time is "busy" (so that people don't try to double-book you...not that it works, but that's the idea), and "busy" time is colored blue.
I've noticed that more and more of my time at work is being coded blue, and today was essentially a Blue Day. Fortunately today was productive meetings vs. theoretical, planning, strategic meetings so stuff actually got done. *thumbs up* But what that means is I'm becoming more and more busy, and my ability to be available for my staff and coworkers is getting drastically reduced - a concern on two fronts. I need to be available to them for questions and escalations if my lead isn't around, and if I'm busy that means I'm not available for my co-workers. My co-workers in many cases are long-time friends and somewhat akin to family, so if my days are mostly blue, then that means my time to be available to my friends and family is reduced.
And that's not cool.
Things most likely will not get any less busy at work so it looks like I'm going to have to find some creative ways to make sure I still have time for them if they want/need it. I've tried to make it a point in my life to make people first and work second and I'm not about to let that die now.
I mean Outlook Blue.
For those that don't use Microsoft Outlook, when you have an appointment on your calendar the default disposition for that time is "busy" (so that people don't try to double-book you...not that it works, but that's the idea), and "busy" time is colored blue.
I've noticed that more and more of my time at work is being coded blue, and today was essentially a Blue Day. Fortunately today was productive meetings vs. theoretical, planning, strategic meetings so stuff actually got done. *thumbs up* But what that means is I'm becoming more and more busy, and my ability to be available for my staff and coworkers is getting drastically reduced - a concern on two fronts. I need to be available to them for questions and escalations if my lead isn't around, and if I'm busy that means I'm not available for my co-workers. My co-workers in many cases are long-time friends and somewhat akin to family, so if my days are mostly blue, then that means my time to be available to my friends and family is reduced.
And that's not cool.
Things most likely will not get any less busy at work so it looks like I'm going to have to find some creative ways to make sure I still have time for them if they want/need it. I've tried to make it a point in my life to make people first and work second and I'm not about to let that die now.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Change
I don't just throw away my change. Yes, it makes it's way to some container after I get home, but I do use it, either for vending machines or to donate to our annual Children's Miracle Network change drive. This is an important understanding when taking into account these two instances...
- I was at Sonic and my total was $4.52. I handed her a $5 bill and took my food, but before I could turn back around to get my change, she was ten feet away walking back towards the building. Didn't ask if it was okay to keep the change. Just took it.
- I went to a taco joint and the bill was $6.46. I gave her $10.51, including two quarters and a penny. I figured three coins for one was a good space-saving decision. About fifteen seconds later she hands me back $4.02. And then she quickly shuts her window. Hmmm...
I tapped on the window.
"Yes?"
"Can I get my other three cents, please?" I reach out my hand to give her back the two pennies.
She doesn't get it. A few more mathematical statements later she hands me a nickle...but doesn't take the pennies from me. Eventually I have to force herto take the pennies saying, "Trust me, your drawer will appreciate it later." After I drove off I wondered if she even knew what I meant, or what it was to "balance" at the end of the night.
These are only two instances of many over the past year, and I ask myself how many transactions are improperly "changed" in this country? And even further, how does $.02 come to equal $.05? Because that's seriously some math I could use.
- I was at Sonic and my total was $4.52. I handed her a $5 bill and took my food, but before I could turn back around to get my change, she was ten feet away walking back towards the building. Didn't ask if it was okay to keep the change. Just took it.
- I went to a taco joint and the bill was $6.46. I gave her $10.51, including two quarters and a penny. I figured three coins for one was a good space-saving decision. About fifteen seconds later she hands me back $4.02. And then she quickly shuts her window. Hmmm...
I tapped on the window.
"Yes?"
"Can I get my other three cents, please?" I reach out my hand to give her back the two pennies.
She doesn't get it. A few more mathematical statements later she hands me a nickle...but doesn't take the pennies from me. Eventually I have to force herto take the pennies saying, "Trust me, your drawer will appreciate it later." After I drove off I wondered if she even knew what I meant, or what it was to "balance" at the end of the night.
These are only two instances of many over the past year, and I ask myself how many transactions are improperly "changed" in this country? And even further, how does $.02 come to equal $.05? Because that's seriously some math I could use.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Best in the NL? Really???
Technically, yes. We mathematically do have the best record in the National League. But are we really the best?
No. Not a chance. Here's a few reasons why (by no means is this an exhaustive list)...
- Doug Davis gives up too damn many walks as it is. Melvin has allowed Davis to pitch himself out of situations this year and he's on a pretty good pitching streak right now. But that's right now. Good teams know what to do with free bases, and you can't afford to give anything away in October.
- B. H. Kim. At least now he's a starter so we have 7 innings to clean up his mess instead of just two, but that's gonna wear on the psyche of some of our players. You wanna be confident in your pitcher, not thinking that you're gonna have to bail him out. Every start matters for us. The more we give to this guy, the worse we'll be down the stretch.
- Overall pitching. You need at least a good 1-2 pitching duo to get out of the first series. We have Webb and...who? Yeah. The way Davis has been pitching he could be a sound #2, but I just don't trust him to keep it up. We probably lose a 5-game series to Penny-Wolf or Peavy-Young, and there ain't no way we win any playoff series against NY's line-up.
- Youth. This *could* work to our advantage since the book against our hitters won't be as thick and maybe they won't no any better to be nervous or scared, but I don't think that's how it goes down for us. Not this year.
At the beginning of the season I said I think we're a year away from the playoffs. I might be wrong, but if they make it I 'spect it will be by default. I still don't see us winning the division title. I hope I'm wrong, mind you, and if they go into the playoffs and go deep I'll cheer like a blithering idiot. I still think we're a year and two pitchers away from being a true contender.
No. Not a chance. Here's a few reasons why (by no means is this an exhaustive list)...
- Doug Davis gives up too damn many walks as it is. Melvin has allowed Davis to pitch himself out of situations this year and he's on a pretty good pitching streak right now. But that's right now. Good teams know what to do with free bases, and you can't afford to give anything away in October.
- B. H. Kim. At least now he's a starter so we have 7 innings to clean up his mess instead of just two, but that's gonna wear on the psyche of some of our players. You wanna be confident in your pitcher, not thinking that you're gonna have to bail him out. Every start matters for us. The more we give to this guy, the worse we'll be down the stretch.
- Overall pitching. You need at least a good 1-2 pitching duo to get out of the first series. We have Webb and...who? Yeah. The way Davis has been pitching he could be a sound #2, but I just don't trust him to keep it up. We probably lose a 5-game series to Penny-Wolf or Peavy-Young, and there ain't no way we win any playoff series against NY's line-up.
- Youth. This *could* work to our advantage since the book against our hitters won't be as thick and maybe they won't no any better to be nervous or scared, but I don't think that's how it goes down for us. Not this year.
At the beginning of the season I said I think we're a year away from the playoffs. I might be wrong, but if they make it I 'spect it will be by default. I still don't see us winning the division title. I hope I'm wrong, mind you, and if they go into the playoffs and go deep I'll cheer like a blithering idiot. I still think we're a year and two pitchers away from being a true contender.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
If Elvis wasn't dead yet, he is now
I was debating on whether or not to watch the pre-season game today. On one hand, it's football, but it's it's still pre-season football. Miss-the-first-ten-minutes-and miss-the-game type stuff. I finally turned it on with about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, just in time to see Indianapolis' struggling back-up offensive unit chuck an interception to the Cowboys.
Neet. What a game. 23-3, Cowboys.
As I'm reaching for the remote I see this commercial come on with a band covering the song "Viva Las Vegas," or so I think. Sounds like it. Words are for it. Right up until the point where it isn't.
"Viva....
"VIVA....
"VIIIIAGRAAAAA!!!"
Ughhh!!!! They totally just gave Vegas a penile enhancement (as if it was necessary). If Elvis really was alive somewhere, this commercial just gave him a heart attack.
Not even five minutes of television and I see two bad products. I knew I should have trusted my gut on this one. Oh well. Bring on the fantasy draft!!!
Neet. What a game. 23-3, Cowboys.
As I'm reaching for the remote I see this commercial come on with a band covering the song "Viva Las Vegas," or so I think. Sounds like it. Words are for it. Right up until the point where it isn't.
"Viva....
"VIVA....
"VIIIIAGRAAAAA!!!"
Ughhh!!!! They totally just gave Vegas a penile enhancement (as if it was necessary). If Elvis really was alive somewhere, this commercial just gave him a heart attack.
Not even five minutes of television and I see two bad products. I knew I should have trusted my gut on this one. Oh well. Bring on the fantasy draft!!!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Welcome, new viewers!
Just wanted to say hi to Hank-Ahn and Wobble! Thanks for droppin' by and leavin' a note or two!
If you haven't done so already, be sure to let me know about any blog or website you might maintain that you want linked.
(Now if only 24 would open up it's website.... *ahem*)
EDIT: Nevermind...looks like they went covert ops on me and launched it, much to the chagrin of the terrorists, Russians, Chinese, and other various rogue elements.
If you haven't done so already, be sure to let me know about any blog or website you might maintain that you want linked.
(Now if only 24 would open up it's website.... *ahem*)
EDIT: Nevermind...looks like they went covert ops on me and launched it, much to the chagrin of the terrorists, Russians, Chinese, and other various rogue elements.
Dorkin' out
A true conversation had between myself and a coworker recently:
Bygood: yeah /sob
Coworker: is that WOW-speak?
Coworker: haha
Bygood: negative
Bygood: ragnarok online-speak
Coworker: hahahaha, i had to sacrifice my RPG addiction when my daughter was born
Bygood: sounds like a reasonable tradeoff to me
Coworker: The call center is my only live action massively multiplayer game now
Bygood: LOL!!!!
Coworker: we have a lot of orcs here
Bygood :so now you have a +7 headset of smiting?
Coworker: lol!
Monday, August 06, 2007
The FGF
This was a pretty good weekend. No beach. No vacation. No frills at all, really. Just a pretty good weekend...in fact, the only thing keeping it from being a great weekend was the fact that my recently replaced brake shoes were defective and wreacked a little havoc on my passenger side drum.
Friday night - Applebees, The Italian Job, and Three Musketeers
Saturday - Car tweakage, Big, car cleanage (for free), Red Lobster, Barnes & Noble, and a massage
Sunday - Church, Kingdom Hearts, dinner at the folks' place
See? Nothing overly exciting. What made it very-nearly-great, though, was the infusuion of girlfriend 2k7. It's been a few years since I've spent an entire weekend with my significant other, and while I wouldn't necessarily want to do it like that every weekend - lets face it, things like poker nights, UFC nights, etc are important - it was definitely a welcomed change of pace from the previous few months.
One of my fellow bloggers refers to his significant other (spouse, in his case) in his blog entries as LWC - aka Lovely Wife Cheryl. My Nemesis refers to her significant other as "the fabulous boyfriend." So, in honor of my significant other along with my friends in the blogosphere, Abby shall genrerally be known as the FGF - the fabulous girlfriend - who helps make weekends great.
Now if I can just get some non-defective brake shoes...
Friday night - Applebees, The Italian Job, and Three Musketeers
Saturday - Car tweakage, Big, car cleanage (for free), Red Lobster, Barnes & Noble, and a massage
Sunday - Church, Kingdom Hearts, dinner at the folks' place
See? Nothing overly exciting. What made it very-nearly-great, though, was the infusuion of girlfriend 2k7. It's been a few years since I've spent an entire weekend with my significant other, and while I wouldn't necessarily want to do it like that every weekend - lets face it, things like poker nights, UFC nights, etc are important - it was definitely a welcomed change of pace from the previous few months.
One of my fellow bloggers refers to his significant other (spouse, in his case) in his blog entries as LWC - aka Lovely Wife Cheryl. My Nemesis refers to her significant other as "the fabulous boyfriend." So, in honor of my significant other along with my friends in the blogosphere, Abby shall genrerally be known as the FGF - the fabulous girlfriend - who helps make weekends great.
Now if I can just get some non-defective brake shoes...
It's like a train wreck...
As if watching PacMan run his career into the ground wasn't enough...
I wonder if they're gonna go after Vick next seeing how they're both kinda sprinting towards the same "Your career is finished" line.
I wonder if they're gonna go after Vick next seeing how they're both kinda sprinting towards the same "Your career is finished" line.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Mmmm...stats!
Precision Counter was suffering from a bad case of Headupis Rectum and was taken offline for a good...idunno, while? Anywho, I was forced to use an alternative hit counter for tracking. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of hit counters that will give the level of tracking detail that Precision Counter does for free so that was kind of a drag.
Anywho, Precision Counter is back, and that makes Shade happy!!! Huzzah for more stats!
Mmmm...stats...
Anywho, Precision Counter is back, and that makes Shade happy!!! Huzzah for more stats!
Mmmm...stats...
Home to Wendy's, whiskey, and....what???
I was doing some general surfing when I saw on Yahoo's top ten list the Dublin Irish Festival. Having never heard of it before I clicked on the link, which then ultimately led me here...
It didn't take me long to figure out that by Dublin it wasn't refering to Dublin, Ireland, but instead to the great city of Dublin, Ohio, suburb of Columbus, home of the Buckeyes!!! Dublin, of course, is home to a few pretty great thigns in and of themselves, chiefly Wendy's international headquarters (mmm...frostys and chili and burgers and potatos and....).
Besides Wendy's and all of its glory, though, it's also home to the - duh! - Dublin Irish Festival. In case you're wondering, yes, Dublin, OH is named for their homeland capital, and yes, there's lots of folks w/Irish heritage in Ohio. So I'm looking through the Festival's web pages and see they have an Irish whisky drinking seminar (which could most accurately be summarized in three words... "DON'T DRINK IT!!!"), dancing competitions, and...Gaelic Games!!! To the Gaelic Games page I go!
This, my friends, might have been a mistake.
On the page I learn that tug o' war apparently has Irish roots...a fairly benign fact. I keep scrolling down, however, to see that hurling and darts are also events. Hmmm...now wait just a minute. At the same place where Ire-folk and other lads and lassies are gonna be chuggin' the whisky and the pints, we're also going to allow pointed objects and large blunt boulders to be thrown? Or maybe by Hurling they really mean "projectile vomiting" (which would be more appropriate since that's what Irish whiskey makes you do)?
(Seriously...have you ever tried it??? Freakin' foul!!! Anyone that's take a shot of Jameson or some other such concoction and says they enjoyed has some faulty taste buds.)
None of this, however, even compares to the first event they have listed...an event so...uh...I can't even describe it. Because I don't know what it is. It sure does sound weird, though, and the name of it suggests that it does NOT mix well with alcohol...
Click here to view a PDF flyer (yes, a flyer!!!) for the event to see what I mean.
If anyone knows what this illustration is, please let me know. Unless you figure I don't want to know what it is, of course, in which case I'll trust your judgement.
It didn't take me long to figure out that by Dublin it wasn't refering to Dublin, Ireland, but instead to the great city of Dublin, Ohio, suburb of Columbus, home of the Buckeyes!!! Dublin, of course, is home to a few pretty great thigns in and of themselves, chiefly Wendy's international headquarters (mmm...frostys and chili and burgers and potatos and....).
Besides Wendy's and all of its glory, though, it's also home to the - duh! - Dublin Irish Festival. In case you're wondering, yes, Dublin, OH is named for their homeland capital, and yes, there's lots of folks w/Irish heritage in Ohio. So I'm looking through the Festival's web pages and see they have an Irish whisky drinking seminar (which could most accurately be summarized in three words... "DON'T DRINK IT!!!"), dancing competitions, and...Gaelic Games!!! To the Gaelic Games page I go!
This, my friends, might have been a mistake.
On the page I learn that tug o' war apparently has Irish roots...a fairly benign fact. I keep scrolling down, however, to see that hurling and darts are also events. Hmmm...now wait just a minute. At the same place where Ire-folk and other lads and lassies are gonna be chuggin' the whisky and the pints, we're also going to allow pointed objects and large blunt boulders to be thrown? Or maybe by Hurling they really mean "projectile vomiting" (which would be more appropriate since that's what Irish whiskey makes you do)?
(Seriously...have you ever tried it??? Freakin' foul!!! Anyone that's take a shot of Jameson or some other such concoction and says they enjoyed has some faulty taste buds.)
None of this, however, even compares to the first event they have listed...an event so...uh...I can't even describe it. Because I don't know what it is. It sure does sound weird, though, and the name of it suggests that it does NOT mix well with alcohol...
Click here to view a PDF flyer (yes, a flyer!!!) for the event to see what I mean.
If anyone knows what this illustration is, please let me know. Unless you figure I don't want to know what it is, of course, in which case I'll trust your judgement.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
American-flavored Chinese food
I was looking at a take-out menu for a Chinese food place today and on the cover it said...
"Asia Lee - Authentic Chinese Food New York Style"
Uhh....wut? What the heck is that?
"Asia Lee - Authentic Chinese Food New York Style"
Uhh....wut? What the heck is that?
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Convenience
Convenience is being able to use your debit card.
Convenience is the do-it-yourself checkout stands at stores so that I don't have to wait in long lines or price checks.
Convenience is having your favorite beloved Ohio State Buckeyes fly out to your state for their bowl game like 8 out of ten years or something ridiculous like that.
In the words of TMac the wise, though, "There is nothing convenient about a 40% service charge."
I recently purchased tickets to an event through Ticketmaster, a company which I have long dispised for outrageous extra charges and holding close to a monopoly on the events ticketing market space. Unfortunately it was the only way to get them so I had to bite. The price of the tickets was $25 x 2 seats so I figure $50 plus maybe a 10% convenience fee or something.
After I "submit"ed my order Ticketmaster was kind enough to flash the total purchace price on my monitor. Of $78.XX.
W
T
F
The "convenience fee" alone was $8 per ticket. Then there was a $4.50 facilities fee per seat or some nonsense like that, then some other bs tax/charge on top of that. Essentially what it said is that you're gonna pay what we ask and like it. Now I'll agree that getting to see a good, storied NFL franchise (the Steelers, not the Cardinals...are you kidding me?) for less than $40 is cheap no matter where you go so even with all the nonsense it's still a reasonable deal. What's crap is that they tell you it costs one price while conveniently forgetting to fully disclose the additional costs prior to submitting your order.
Yeah yeah fine print. Whatever.
Convenience is the do-it-yourself checkout stands at stores so that I don't have to wait in long lines or price checks.
Convenience is having your favorite beloved Ohio State Buckeyes fly out to your state for their bowl game like 8 out of ten years or something ridiculous like that.
In the words of TMac the wise, though, "There is nothing convenient about a 40% service charge."
I recently purchased tickets to an event through Ticketmaster, a company which I have long dispised for outrageous extra charges and holding close to a monopoly on the events ticketing market space. Unfortunately it was the only way to get them so I had to bite. The price of the tickets was $25 x 2 seats so I figure $50 plus maybe a 10% convenience fee or something.
After I "submit"ed my order Ticketmaster was kind enough to flash the total purchace price on my monitor. Of $78.XX.
W
T
F
The "convenience fee" alone was $8 per ticket. Then there was a $4.50 facilities fee per seat or some nonsense like that, then some other bs tax/charge on top of that. Essentially what it said is that you're gonna pay what we ask and like it. Now I'll agree that getting to see a good, storied NFL franchise (the Steelers, not the Cardinals...are you kidding me?) for less than $40 is cheap no matter where you go so even with all the nonsense it's still a reasonable deal. What's crap is that they tell you it costs one price while conveniently forgetting to fully disclose the additional costs prior to submitting your order.
Yeah yeah fine print. Whatever.
Thinking outside the box
I don't tend to dive into politics too much on my blog, partly because I hate politics (although I still vote, if for no other reason so that I can complain later), and partly because it causes the kind of bitching in the blogosphere that I'd just as soon avoid. Although I'm a registered independent, I do enjoy Bill Mahr's commentary and comedy. It doesn't matter if I agree with the causes he tends to favor/champion - what I like about him is that his arguments seem to pretty factually based if not somewhat biased (isn't bias a pre-requisite for modern political rhetoric, though?). In any case here's what he said in his latest comedy special that had me clapping my hands heartily...
"Because we did have an election about this, remember? The people said, "No, I think this war is over. We don't like it."...But, George Bush, all by himself, the decider. Just spit-balling, you know, thinking outside the box. You know what? Thinking outside the box is for smart people. The box is for you. You need the box. Stay inside the box."
Freakin' brilliant!!! Even without the political context, his idea is mostly true! If only I could have made this happen during high school...
"Because we did have an election about this, remember? The people said, "No, I think this war is over. We don't like it."...But, George Bush, all by himself, the decider. Just spit-balling, you know, thinking outside the box. You know what? Thinking outside the box is for smart people. The box is for you. You need the box. Stay inside the box."
Freakin' brilliant!!! Even without the political context, his idea is mostly true! If only I could have made this happen during high school...
Catching up
(*Warning* The contents of this email are being written after only about two hours sleep)
It's been nearly a month since the last blog post, and it was an AnimeExpo con post at that. I know I've been rather neglectful of my blogging...uh...duties? I clearly haven't been writing - we're getting back on that horse today - and I've barely been reading, so to my few-but-faithful fans out there I do apologize! What's been keeping me away from you all???
- Post-convention stress syndrome. After I got back from the convention I was simply tired and poor. I'm glad I went to the convention for fun since fun was definitely had! Just the same, what I thought would be less stressful trip since I didn't have to work the con or worry about setting alarms or wake up calls or anything like that turned out to be even more stressful than a con I volunteer at. Turns out that trying to coordinate room arrangements for a small group and meal schedules/dietary needs for a somewhat larger group isn't really all that cool. Oh well. I still may organize the lodging and transportation for a group next year but I don't know that I'll be participating in the group activities.
Prior to leaving I had some brake work done so that we'd have a safe trip. I also noticed that the engine wasn't turning over as quickly and the battery was about due to be replaced. The battery still had some life left, but they recommended I replace the springs and some other hardware on the brake system in addition to the needed parts. I passed.
It's funny what a 720 mile round trip through Death Valley during the hottest week of the year will do to a car. And my bank account. There were no problems during the trip, but by the time we got back the battery was shot (we accidently left the dome light on for a few hours when the car wasn't running - brilliant!) and the springs had warped rendering the rear brakes basically useless. Anywho, all worked well enough to get us home and get me to the car place to take care of the rest of the brake hardware. Then I still had to get back to the office and catch up on the backlog of...
- Work. July is my second least-favorite work month of the year due to employee appraisals being due and the annual budgeting process. On top of those normal duties, we also had to interview for three expansion positions and work towards completing a major volume expansion for my department. That last project will be a labor of love for the next two calendar months, and depending on how everything goes October could be a relative nightmare.
Seriously. Any thoughts, prayers, juju, and positive vibes you can send my way during that time will really be appreciated. There's a pretty significant amount at stake for myself, my boss, my VP, and the credit union with this expansion project. So with the increased stress I need a stress-releiver which has been taking the form of ...
- Games. The Ragnarok Online anniversary event was going on during June/July so much leveling was going on. I'm not the power-leveler like some of my friends are but I still did as much as my schedule, my fatigue, and my sanity would allow for. Who knows...one day I might even finish a character! I've also been developing/implimenting a guild event for our game that will run the course of ten weeks. Multiple updates are necessary each week so that's definitely taking up some time. Nothing outrageous, but time nonetheless. It hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped but I've still got a few participants and if nothing else folks from other guilds have taken notice and asked to join our guild or have me do a similar event for them. I thought I might have the time to do so since my evenings/weekends were mostly free until I stumbled upon...
- Girlfriend 2007. Or rather she stumbled upon me. On July 1st I received an email from an old acquaintance from the high school youth group at church. We didn't really talk all that much back then but I still remembered who she was. Turns out she had a crush on me since that time, but when she saw me with my now-ex-wife she reasonably figured that I wasn't exactly available any more. 'Course now that's different and as "circumstance" would have it our paths crossed yet again. We talked for a while, went out a few times, and we've hit it off smashingly well so far. It's rather hard to believe that it's basically been a month already since that first contact but it's been all kinds of fun! Her name is Abby, she's a graphics designer, loves to read, enjoys action/sci-fi movies, and has a PS2. She even challenged me to a game of Tetris the first time I was over there! And she really enjoyed the new Die Hard movie. I give her two thumbs up. :-D
So that's been life for the past month or so. I don't know if I'll be posting as much as I used to over the next few months but I'll do my best to throw some thoughts up here as they come up. I still enjoy blogging and sharing my random idiocracies!
Until next time...
It's been nearly a month since the last blog post, and it was an AnimeExpo con post at that. I know I've been rather neglectful of my blogging...uh...duties? I clearly haven't been writing - we're getting back on that horse today - and I've barely been reading, so to my few-but-faithful fans out there I do apologize! What's been keeping me away from you all???
- Post-convention stress syndrome. After I got back from the convention I was simply tired and poor. I'm glad I went to the convention for fun since fun was definitely had! Just the same, what I thought would be less stressful trip since I didn't have to work the con or worry about setting alarms or wake up calls or anything like that turned out to be even more stressful than a con I volunteer at. Turns out that trying to coordinate room arrangements for a small group and meal schedules/dietary needs for a somewhat larger group isn't really all that cool. Oh well. I still may organize the lodging and transportation for a group next year but I don't know that I'll be participating in the group activities.
Prior to leaving I had some brake work done so that we'd have a safe trip. I also noticed that the engine wasn't turning over as quickly and the battery was about due to be replaced. The battery still had some life left, but they recommended I replace the springs and some other hardware on the brake system in addition to the needed parts. I passed.
It's funny what a 720 mile round trip through Death Valley during the hottest week of the year will do to a car. And my bank account. There were no problems during the trip, but by the time we got back the battery was shot (we accidently left the dome light on for a few hours when the car wasn't running - brilliant!) and the springs had warped rendering the rear brakes basically useless. Anywho, all worked well enough to get us home and get me to the car place to take care of the rest of the brake hardware. Then I still had to get back to the office and catch up on the backlog of...
- Work. July is my second least-favorite work month of the year due to employee appraisals being due and the annual budgeting process. On top of those normal duties, we also had to interview for three expansion positions and work towards completing a major volume expansion for my department. That last project will be a labor of love for the next two calendar months, and depending on how everything goes October could be a relative nightmare.
Seriously. Any thoughts, prayers, juju, and positive vibes you can send my way during that time will really be appreciated. There's a pretty significant amount at stake for myself, my boss, my VP, and the credit union with this expansion project. So with the increased stress I need a stress-releiver which has been taking the form of ...
- Games. The Ragnarok Online anniversary event was going on during June/July so much leveling was going on. I'm not the power-leveler like some of my friends are but I still did as much as my schedule, my fatigue, and my sanity would allow for. Who knows...one day I might even finish a character! I've also been developing/implimenting a guild event for our game that will run the course of ten weeks. Multiple updates are necessary each week so that's definitely taking up some time. Nothing outrageous, but time nonetheless. It hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped but I've still got a few participants and if nothing else folks from other guilds have taken notice and asked to join our guild or have me do a similar event for them. I thought I might have the time to do so since my evenings/weekends were mostly free until I stumbled upon...
- Girlfriend 2007. Or rather she stumbled upon me. On July 1st I received an email from an old acquaintance from the high school youth group at church. We didn't really talk all that much back then but I still remembered who she was. Turns out she had a crush on me since that time, but when she saw me with my now-ex-wife she reasonably figured that I wasn't exactly available any more. 'Course now that's different and as "circumstance" would have it our paths crossed yet again. We talked for a while, went out a few times, and we've hit it off smashingly well so far. It's rather hard to believe that it's basically been a month already since that first contact but it's been all kinds of fun! Her name is Abby, she's a graphics designer, loves to read, enjoys action/sci-fi movies, and has a PS2. She even challenged me to a game of Tetris the first time I was over there! And she really enjoyed the new Die Hard movie. I give her two thumbs up. :-D
So that's been life for the past month or so. I don't know if I'll be posting as much as I used to over the next few months but I'll do my best to throw some thoughts up here as they come up. I still enjoy blogging and sharing my random idiocracies!
Until next time...
Thursday, July 05, 2007
LineCon - Day 4
Day 4 began with Ganon leaving early (that is, before 11) for the convention hall to sign up for the Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament.
"Hey, what character do you normally play?"
"Ganon."
Hmm...go figure. Anywho, we all took our time, then shoved off for the con at some later point. G, Telly and I went shopping for a bit, then we noticed that it was pretty near the starting time for the Transformers movie (yes, the new one). Telly had some more shopping to to do G and I went to find the end of the line.
We never found it, though. By the time we got out there the line was about a half mile long, in the sun. Freakin' LineCon. We were so sick of long lines in the sun that we didn't feel like another, especially on the last day, so we went to eat. Telly joined us shortly afterwards, then it was back to the convention to watch Ganon tear it up in the tourney.
And tear it up he did. He was a bit nervous because another of the tournament players is the guy he lost to in the finals previously. Other than that foe, though, he was very confident. People were pretty surprised by him at first because the character Ganon in the game is something of a 2nd tier character - the pro's usually use different people - but he handled his business very well and garnered compliments from the entire crowd - he was basically coronated as the "best Ganon I've ever seen." In the end his nemesis was defeated and he had to go up against a Jigglypuff. The match was neck and neck for a good while until Jiggly snuck in wicked, unexpected blow that knocked Ganon flying off the screen for the win. Still, 2nd place out of 128 is pretty damn good and he got a nice little truckload of stuff, including .hack//G.U. Special Edition. I <3 .hack!!!
After that was done the convention was basically done as well. We met up w/Drax's crew and grubbed for a while, then went back to our rooms for a bit to relax. Watched some anime, had some pizza. After a few hours we went back to Drax's room to meet up with them again, then mobbed over to Outback. The strange thing is that when I saw Drax again I nearly didn't recognize her and Hom as this was the first time since Friday afternoon I didn't see them cosplaying.
After dinner we started walking back and I randomly interjected my honking sound. It's kinda like a tricycle horn, but without the horn. Apparently, this is one of the funniest sounds known to mankind - so much so that they saw fit to conclude their convention video with it. I'm told that the two girls nearly spontaneously combusted from laughing so hard after I left.
I still suspect that little sound byte is gonna end up on YouTube somewhere. If it really is that funny then girls all across the world could be walking around with beet-red faces and laughing hysterically. Not sure if that's good or bad to be laughed at like that, but it was definitely fun at the time
A couple of thoughts/bits of funniness...
- AX is fun, but good lord to they need to get their shiz together. The registration line was completely fouled up within two hours of it opening, and they had a "critical network failure" to boot.
- Communication from AX in general needs to be dramatically improved. Many times the vol's were left to fend for themselves, make decisions on how to handle crowds, route traffic, give explanations to people on why things were sucking at that moment, PR/spin control, etc. It's a *really* bad idea to leave that to volunteers or cheaply-paid staff. Yes, staff costs more. I guarantee, though, that those 44,000+ attendees would pay ten more dollars each for their badges. Given that next year's con will likely top 50k people, that's over $500k more in revenue just from the registration alone. Even if half of that goes to the extra expenses that's still $250k more to pay for extra staff. That's at least 5 more f/t staff, each of which could handle a team of 15 vols. And that's just from a simple increase in badge cost.
- The Long Beach CC area was not prepared for us at all. They've handled bigger cons and they've handled fan/otaku cons before, but they've never held an otaku con of this magnitude before. By the end of the con I heard the staff of multiple establishments saying they don't want us back.
- What kind of hotel kicks people out of their lobby?
- On the phone - "Why don't you come over to my room? I want to show you something." All the people who were listening on the phone raised their eyebrows.
- Overheard: "I was supposed to get sex with that last piece of candy!"
"That can still be arranged!"
To my knowledge, no sex was had from that piece of candy.
- Two of the times I went to ride the trolley/bus back to our hotel, the drivers were talking to one of the passengers who was also standing in front of the line that they are supposedly legally required to stand behind. I don't like my drivers talking to passengers. I prefer them to...oh, I don't know...focus on driving?
- Butt Seks will get you laughed at by everyone in line, as well as thrown out of the con.
- You don't have to have a beer belly to know your beer.
- Said our server at the Yard House - "I was just standing there and I was really hot!" Yes, honey...yes you were. And are. Hot.
- Outback has someone on staff in the back to carefully grow, peel, roast, and grind your coffee beans whenever someone orders coffee. Very carefully. And if you're lucky, they'll even brew it for you!
Next year's AX will be in the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is great news as far as the sun is concerned - all lines should be inside. It's terrible news from a logistics perspective - there aren't really any hotels close to the con (the closest one is about a quarter mile away and that's fairly small...the big ones are about a half-mile away or more) which makes cosplay a wee bit more difficult, and it really hurts the nightlife as the area around the con isn't conducive to just hanging out. Dodging bullets, maybe, but not hanging out.
"Hey, what character do you normally play?"
"Ganon."
Hmm...go figure. Anywho, we all took our time, then shoved off for the con at some later point. G, Telly and I went shopping for a bit, then we noticed that it was pretty near the starting time for the Transformers movie (yes, the new one). Telly had some more shopping to to do G and I went to find the end of the line.
We never found it, though. By the time we got out there the line was about a half mile long, in the sun. Freakin' LineCon. We were so sick of long lines in the sun that we didn't feel like another, especially on the last day, so we went to eat. Telly joined us shortly afterwards, then it was back to the convention to watch Ganon tear it up in the tourney.
And tear it up he did. He was a bit nervous because another of the tournament players is the guy he lost to in the finals previously. Other than that foe, though, he was very confident. People were pretty surprised by him at first because the character Ganon in the game is something of a 2nd tier character - the pro's usually use different people - but he handled his business very well and garnered compliments from the entire crowd - he was basically coronated as the "best Ganon I've ever seen." In the end his nemesis was defeated and he had to go up against a Jigglypuff. The match was neck and neck for a good while until Jiggly snuck in wicked, unexpected blow that knocked Ganon flying off the screen for the win. Still, 2nd place out of 128 is pretty damn good and he got a nice little truckload of stuff, including .hack//G.U. Special Edition. I <3 .hack!!!
After that was done the convention was basically done as well. We met up w/Drax's crew and grubbed for a while, then went back to our rooms for a bit to relax. Watched some anime, had some pizza. After a few hours we went back to Drax's room to meet up with them again, then mobbed over to Outback. The strange thing is that when I saw Drax again I nearly didn't recognize her and Hom as this was the first time since Friday afternoon I didn't see them cosplaying.
After dinner we started walking back and I randomly interjected my honking sound. It's kinda like a tricycle horn, but without the horn. Apparently, this is one of the funniest sounds known to mankind - so much so that they saw fit to conclude their convention video with it. I'm told that the two girls nearly spontaneously combusted from laughing so hard after I left.
I still suspect that little sound byte is gonna end up on YouTube somewhere. If it really is that funny then girls all across the world could be walking around with beet-red faces and laughing hysterically. Not sure if that's good or bad to be laughed at like that, but it was definitely fun at the time
A couple of thoughts/bits of funniness...
- AX is fun, but good lord to they need to get their shiz together. The registration line was completely fouled up within two hours of it opening, and they had a "critical network failure" to boot.
- Communication from AX in general needs to be dramatically improved. Many times the vol's were left to fend for themselves, make decisions on how to handle crowds, route traffic, give explanations to people on why things were sucking at that moment, PR/spin control, etc. It's a *really* bad idea to leave that to volunteers or cheaply-paid staff. Yes, staff costs more. I guarantee, though, that those 44,000+ attendees would pay ten more dollars each for their badges. Given that next year's con will likely top 50k people, that's over $500k more in revenue just from the registration alone. Even if half of that goes to the extra expenses that's still $250k more to pay for extra staff. That's at least 5 more f/t staff, each of which could handle a team of 15 vols. And that's just from a simple increase in badge cost.
- The Long Beach CC area was not prepared for us at all. They've handled bigger cons and they've handled fan/otaku cons before, but they've never held an otaku con of this magnitude before. By the end of the con I heard the staff of multiple establishments saying they don't want us back.
- What kind of hotel kicks people out of their lobby?
- On the phone - "Why don't you come over to my room? I want to show you something." All the people who were listening on the phone raised their eyebrows.
- Overheard: "I was supposed to get sex with that last piece of candy!"
"That can still be arranged!"
To my knowledge, no sex was had from that piece of candy.
- Two of the times I went to ride the trolley/bus back to our hotel, the drivers were talking to one of the passengers who was also standing in front of the line that they are supposedly legally required to stand behind. I don't like my drivers talking to passengers. I prefer them to...oh, I don't know...focus on driving?
- Butt Seks will get you laughed at by everyone in line, as well as thrown out of the con.
- You don't have to have a beer belly to know your beer.
- Said our server at the Yard House - "I was just standing there and I was really hot!" Yes, honey...yes you were. And are. Hot.
- Outback has someone on staff in the back to carefully grow, peel, roast, and grind your coffee beans whenever someone orders coffee. Very carefully. And if you're lucky, they'll even brew it for you!
Next year's AX will be in the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is great news as far as the sun is concerned - all lines should be inside. It's terrible news from a logistics perspective - there aren't really any hotels close to the con (the closest one is about a quarter mile away and that's fairly small...the big ones are about a half-mile away or more) which makes cosplay a wee bit more difficult, and it really hurts the nightlife as the area around the con isn't conducive to just hanging out. Dodging bullets, maybe, but not hanging out.
Anime Expo - Day 3
The day started off slow. We didn't make it out of the hotel room until about 11:15. Telly found a magical burst of speed and got to the bus stop before us, thereby getting to the con before us (us beeing G, Ganon, and myself). Once we all finally met up we rather immediately split up again. They went into the exhibit hall, and I went to fetch Jynx and Claire.
Claire's not really a fan girl - she plays RO with her husband but aparently isn't so much into the anime stuff itself - and she's with child as well, so I very much applaud her for making the trip! It was great to meet up with a couple more folks before the "big meeting."
I introduced those two back to the regular crew, walked around the exhibit hall some, then we slowly started making our way to the lagoon for the big RO meeting. At first Genesis and a few private server newbs were the only folks there. Then more and more started showing up until when you looked around the only thing you could see were RO players and cosplayers. In fact there were so many of us on the small island out there (connected by bridges...no, we didn't have to swim!!!) that three AX access control staffers had to come out just to see what was going on!
Soon afterwards the pictures started by class. Lots of priestly types and magic users. A few sins. A few archer classes. Only two swordie classes. A few monsters, including a really cute Alice holding a myst case and a really cute little Munak as well. While the pictures are going on we're all meeting people from other guilds. Killer Tomatoes, Dragon's Ire, and Sairai were all represented. KT had one of the larger groups there, but Genesis' following was probably the 2nd largest. We also had some server pictures done and that's when we realized that Chaos - who was bragging earlier in the con that they were going to have about 100 people at the meeting - was outnumbered 3:1 by Loki!!! LOKI FOR THE WIN, BISH!!!
We went to some pub/brewery that had - and I'm not kidding - over 100 different beers on tap for lunch, then started making our way back to the con. Half of us went to get tickets for the masquerade. The other half went to get ice cream at Cold Stone. When we saw the Cold Stone line with about 30 total people in it standing out the door in the sun, though, we figured that was a bad idea. Back to the air conditioning and exhibit hall!!! :-D I bought some fine line markers and a sketch book just to doodle around just to prove to myself that I'm not an artist. I'm not terrible, but I don't think I can do originals very well to save my life. I draw a mean kunai, though!!!
Everyone in the group but me went to the masquerade and had a good time. Afterwards G and Ganon headed back to the room. I was watching the new Hellsing Ultimate (which was pretty cool stuff!) and then met up w/Draxie's crew and Telly in her room for wine and hangin' out.
From there we pretty much just hung out in various places until two am when the dance ended. Telly really likes the dances. The rest of us are pretty /eh about them.
A word of note - Draxie's crew kicks ass. They cosplay VERY well and make their own stuff to boot! In fact, Draxie's HP costume was so good that a Gravity representative (not a GM) gave her an ArchAngeling plushie and evil wing ears!!! The most anyone else got was a stuffed poring! Besides all that, they're just fun to hang out with as long as you can handle the occasional yaoi pose that they force you into (ask Telly for details...I think he liked it a little too much).
Okay, off we go for Day 4!
Claire's not really a fan girl - she plays RO with her husband but aparently isn't so much into the anime stuff itself - and she's with child as well, so I very much applaud her for making the trip! It was great to meet up with a couple more folks before the "big meeting."
I introduced those two back to the regular crew, walked around the exhibit hall some, then we slowly started making our way to the lagoon for the big RO meeting. At first Genesis and a few private server newbs were the only folks there. Then more and more started showing up until when you looked around the only thing you could see were RO players and cosplayers. In fact there were so many of us on the small island out there (connected by bridges...no, we didn't have to swim!!!) that three AX access control staffers had to come out just to see what was going on!
Soon afterwards the pictures started by class. Lots of priestly types and magic users. A few sins. A few archer classes. Only two swordie classes. A few monsters, including a really cute Alice holding a myst case and a really cute little Munak as well. While the pictures are going on we're all meeting people from other guilds. Killer Tomatoes, Dragon's Ire, and Sairai were all represented. KT had one of the larger groups there, but Genesis' following was probably the 2nd largest. We also had some server pictures done and that's when we realized that Chaos - who was bragging earlier in the con that they were going to have about 100 people at the meeting - was outnumbered 3:1 by Loki!!! LOKI FOR THE WIN, BISH!!!
We went to some pub/brewery that had - and I'm not kidding - over 100 different beers on tap for lunch, then started making our way back to the con. Half of us went to get tickets for the masquerade. The other half went to get ice cream at Cold Stone. When we saw the Cold Stone line with about 30 total people in it standing out the door in the sun, though, we figured that was a bad idea. Back to the air conditioning and exhibit hall!!! :-D I bought some fine line markers and a sketch book just to doodle around just to prove to myself that I'm not an artist. I'm not terrible, but I don't think I can do originals very well to save my life. I draw a mean kunai, though!!!
Everyone in the group but me went to the masquerade and had a good time. Afterwards G and Ganon headed back to the room. I was watching the new Hellsing Ultimate (which was pretty cool stuff!) and then met up w/Draxie's crew and Telly in her room for wine and hangin' out.
From there we pretty much just hung out in various places until two am when the dance ended. Telly really likes the dances. The rest of us are pretty /eh about them.
A word of note - Draxie's crew kicks ass. They cosplay VERY well and make their own stuff to boot! In fact, Draxie's HP costume was so good that a Gravity representative (not a GM) gave her an ArchAngeling plushie and evil wing ears!!! The most anyone else got was a stuffed poring! Besides all that, they're just fun to hang out with as long as you can handle the occasional yaoi pose that they force you into (ask Telly for details...I think he liked it a little too much).
Okay, off we go for Day 4!
Anime Expo - Day 2
It started off with us arriving at the con around 10:30 am or so and...well, I have no idea what Telly and G did at that point. We split up and I got in line to get into the exhibit hall. Which was...about a half mile long. The difference is that this line was constantly moving so it went pretty quickly.
The hall itself is amazing. I've watched it get bigger and bigger each year, and this year's is the biggest by far. Bandai and Copic are right up front, with Geneon and ADV not too far behind them. Geneon is pimping it's Ultimate Hellsing, ADV has some anime set in Russia with a French title that they're promoting heavily, and Bandai is it's own normal jugernaut. Funimation has a large booth, but strangely it's pretty much off to the side and out of the way - very strange for such a large company.
The exhibit hall is absolutely packed with people...so much so that it's not convenient at all to browse people's wares. I push through the masses though, going isle by isle (there's about 20 isles) and systematically check it out. Sort of. I had to stop for an occasional picture or backtrack to check out a few new items. There are basically four types of booths there - large producers, anime/manga sales, gundam/toy sales, and culture sales (clothes, weapons, music, etc). The quantity of booth babes at this convention is significantly reduced over previous years, as is the quality. Eh. Oh well.
Sgt. Frog is being sold all over the place, as is Mario stuff. Other big sellers are Final Fantasy, Deathnote, Naruto, and Bleach. DragonBall Z isn't nearly as well merchandised this year as in past years (thankfully). .hack//Roots is pretty well cosplayed this day and .hack//G.U. looks pretty damn cool. Player Killers FTW!!!
It took me about three hours to work through only three quarters of the exhibit hall before I got a call from Telly saying we were all meeting up for grub at the California Pizza Kitchen. There were fifteen of us, including Draxie, Chong, Hom, Tessa, RK, Vodon, Amy, G, Ganon, Myself, and some other folks that we really didn't know but were friends of Vodon. And Telly paid for us all!!!! /slur /slur /omg /slur /slur
I went back to finish the exhibit hall and bought all four of the Final Fantasy Master Weapon works statues that just came out this week; Telly and the rest of the crew did...I have no idea. After I was done in the hall and it closed we met up to watch a Ramen eating contest, proceeded to grub at Rock Bottom, had some drinks, headed back to the convention hall to discuss more Deathnote philosophy and theory (damn those shinigami!!!), and then headed back to the room.
Before we got to the room, though, we tried to catch a free shuttle back to our hotel. We couldn't because it was too full and was the last shuttle of the evening, but the last guy on the bus had the door shut on his arm and the driver just took off like that, arm stuck outside, waving away. It looked like he was giving turn signals with his hand. About ten seconds later she finally realized what happend and let him get his arm inside.
We laughed. A LOT!
K, that's all for now. On to day 3!!!
The hall itself is amazing. I've watched it get bigger and bigger each year, and this year's is the biggest by far. Bandai and Copic are right up front, with Geneon and ADV not too far behind them. Geneon is pimping it's Ultimate Hellsing, ADV has some anime set in Russia with a French title that they're promoting heavily, and Bandai is it's own normal jugernaut. Funimation has a large booth, but strangely it's pretty much off to the side and out of the way - very strange for such a large company.
The exhibit hall is absolutely packed with people...so much so that it's not convenient at all to browse people's wares. I push through the masses though, going isle by isle (there's about 20 isles) and systematically check it out. Sort of. I had to stop for an occasional picture or backtrack to check out a few new items. There are basically four types of booths there - large producers, anime/manga sales, gundam/toy sales, and culture sales (clothes, weapons, music, etc). The quantity of booth babes at this convention is significantly reduced over previous years, as is the quality. Eh. Oh well.
Sgt. Frog is being sold all over the place, as is Mario stuff. Other big sellers are Final Fantasy, Deathnote, Naruto, and Bleach. DragonBall Z isn't nearly as well merchandised this year as in past years (thankfully). .hack//Roots is pretty well cosplayed this day and .hack//G.U. looks pretty damn cool. Player Killers FTW!!!
It took me about three hours to work through only three quarters of the exhibit hall before I got a call from Telly saying we were all meeting up for grub at the California Pizza Kitchen. There were fifteen of us, including Draxie, Chong, Hom, Tessa, RK, Vodon, Amy, G, Ganon, Myself, and some other folks that we really didn't know but were friends of Vodon. And Telly paid for us all!!!! /slur /slur /omg /slur /slur
I went back to finish the exhibit hall and bought all four of the Final Fantasy Master Weapon works statues that just came out this week; Telly and the rest of the crew did...I have no idea. After I was done in the hall and it closed we met up to watch a Ramen eating contest, proceeded to grub at Rock Bottom, had some drinks, headed back to the convention hall to discuss more Deathnote philosophy and theory (damn those shinigami!!!), and then headed back to the room.
Before we got to the room, though, we tried to catch a free shuttle back to our hotel. We couldn't because it was too full and was the last shuttle of the evening, but the last guy on the bus had the door shut on his arm and the driver just took off like that, arm stuck outside, waving away. It looked like he was giving turn signals with his hand. About ten seconds later she finally realized what happend and let him get his arm inside.
We laughed. A LOT!
K, that's all for now. On to day 3!!!
Friday, June 29, 2007
It doesn't get any better than this, baby (errr...wait...yes it does)!!!
We rolled into town about 9:30, found our hotel with some difficulty (which is pretty nice and has a fantastic freakin' view, as expected from the earlier pics). We couldn't check in yet because it was too early, but we immediately caught the free shuttle from the hotel to the con and sought out the line for registration. Up the stairs we went because that's where we saw the line, which was between a quarter and half mile long at this point (about 9:50 or so?). We ask one of the attendants if this is the line for registration and he lets us know that we're definitely in the wrong spot. In fact, we need to go back down the stairs and walk towards the performing arts center, about a quarter mile down the street.
Okay, cool. Quarter mile, no problem. But he was waving his arms like you would when you tell your receiver to go deeper for a pass and laughing at us. This was our first clue that we were screwed. We had no idea just how badly yet, though.
So we find the performing arts center and there is someone dividing a line into two lines - pre-registered folks, and not. "Hey, where's the end of this line?"
"Keep walking that way. You should see it. Eventually." Uh oh.....
So we keep walking down that same street and see the line loop around the aquarium, then back to the street. Keep going about 5 more blocks down the street, plus the two that went inland, and we're at about a half-mile. We finally see what we think is the end of the line at the corner of a parking lot, only to realize that the line then starts to snake back through the parking lot.
If any of you have been to Disney and waited through their queues, you know what I mean. You work through this queue only to turn the corner and see...another queue. Except this was about 1.5 miles in length. Litterally. And it's only 10:15 at this point. Registration barely started fifteen minutes ago. And we're in the sun with no sun protection. WHEEEE!!!
Oh, and did I mention there is no food or eateries on the street at all? Or even within a half-mile?
After three hours we'd worked our way to the point where we split into two lines. It took us another 2 hours and 45 minutes to work through the second line. Nearly six hours in line for day one. Neet. All we had energy for after that was food, and checking into the hotel. We never made it inside the con.
Registration was so screwed that they had to postpone a concert for two hours because people could register fast enough to get their tickets, and even then they were still GIVING tickets away right before hand because people were too tired to enjoy it. Sadly, this was supposed to be one of the headlines of the convention but they screwed the pooch bigtime.
Now, we still had fun. There was about ten of us that met up and we were laughing and people watching, etc. I made a little Black Ops trip to get some drinks for us. Folks were chatting on their DS's. Good times were defintely had. It just wasn't nearly as good as it would have been if we weren't tired and hungry and burnt and needing showers and ankle replacement surgery after standing on cement for nearly six hours.
Okay, cool. Quarter mile, no problem. But he was waving his arms like you would when you tell your receiver to go deeper for a pass and laughing at us. This was our first clue that we were screwed. We had no idea just how badly yet, though.
So we find the performing arts center and there is someone dividing a line into two lines - pre-registered folks, and not. "Hey, where's the end of this line?"
"Keep walking that way. You should see it. Eventually." Uh oh.....
So we keep walking down that same street and see the line loop around the aquarium, then back to the street. Keep going about 5 more blocks down the street, plus the two that went inland, and we're at about a half-mile. We finally see what we think is the end of the line at the corner of a parking lot, only to realize that the line then starts to snake back through the parking lot.
If any of you have been to Disney and waited through their queues, you know what I mean. You work through this queue only to turn the corner and see...another queue. Except this was about 1.5 miles in length. Litterally. And it's only 10:15 at this point. Registration barely started fifteen minutes ago. And we're in the sun with no sun protection. WHEEEE!!!
Oh, and did I mention there is no food or eateries on the street at all? Or even within a half-mile?
After three hours we'd worked our way to the point where we split into two lines. It took us another 2 hours and 45 minutes to work through the second line. Nearly six hours in line for day one. Neet. All we had energy for after that was food, and checking into the hotel. We never made it inside the con.
Registration was so screwed that they had to postpone a concert for two hours because people could register fast enough to get their tickets, and even then they were still GIVING tickets away right before hand because people were too tired to enjoy it. Sadly, this was supposed to be one of the headlines of the convention but they screwed the pooch bigtime.
Now, we still had fun. There was about ten of us that met up and we were laughing and people watching, etc. I made a little Black Ops trip to get some drinks for us. Folks were chatting on their DS's. Good times were defintely had. It just wasn't nearly as good as it would have been if we weren't tired and hungry and burnt and needing showers and ankle replacement surgery after standing on cement for nearly six hours.
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