A Gateway to Societal Paths

Just got back from Strategicon:Gateway, almost "today (as in we almost got home past midnight last night)" but in retrospect, I am so glad I decided to tag along with J.C..
First day we had not even asked ourselves what we wanted to play when a enthusiastic gentleman began to chat us up. apparently he was running a pathfinder game where the PC's play a band of goblins, a fantastic one shot. I agree to go play. (Apparently it was a one shot for Pathfinder Society, which I had toyed with signing up for in the past, but had not committed to, as I had not fully researched it.) We assemble and start picking pre-gen goblins, but there is a small army of us, grossly exceeding the encounter CR so we move to a different room and split into two groups as one of the players volunteers to DM. I opted to join the Last Second Group, where I meet "D.J?.", an older gentleman than myself with a goatee and a wicked glint in his eye who volunteered to DM and "H.Hazzard." a bespectabled, well built, prematurely-balding-batman-baseball cap wearing, crazy eyed glaring chap as well.
The goblin crew set out, I opted for the NE cleric of the Goblin God (we were all evil, and, like you do, hate dogs & horses and LOVE fire) and at the beginning of our first combat, before we were allowed to perform any actions, we had to sign our "goblin song (all the pregen's had a quaint little flavor text box)" in order to continue the session. An hour goes by as we get to the dungeon(read:combat grid map section) and barrel through it as H.Hazzard's goblin has a barbarian like rage whenever he smells dogs. Quote "Ah hayt dawgs. Aye smell'um." and as evidence from some of the other parties in character voices, these goblins have cajun accents as our speculated cooking also runs along that vein.
We barrel down into the boss fight as H.Hazzard busts through a floor to get to the dogs, wielding a "goblin sized great club" (a horse joint we hacked off our first major encounter "stompy") and the hilarity ensues. Our alchemist cant stay standing, our rogue, shy from one of the first fights, doesn't make come into the room till round 4, the fighter wont even consider the boss(an evil druid with a Med. Frog companion) until all dogs are rendered unidentifiable, and the bard is doing his/her best to be useful. Seeing as the rogue is wielding a gift from the chief (a +1 weapon) he has a n extra "dogslicer(knife)" and refusing to dual wield with his standard one, I, the cleric, Sleight of Hand it off of him while he's prone, 2 combats previously and am now a dual-wielding cleric.
I get a swarm dropped on me, there are three dogs up as well as the boss & her toad, so, I do what I think any self respecting NE goblin cleric who already blew his burning hands earlier that day would do! Channel negative energy, three consecutive rounds. Even until the last day of the con (four days total) the Goblin MVP's were myself for nearly dropping half of my own party as the CLERIC, and the alchemist from the OTHER group for playing sloppy with the AoE from his bombs. And so, just as I get swallowed by the toad, my group manages to finish off the toad & the druid, all wrapped up in less than 2&1/2 hours. A fantastic introduction to Pathfinder Society if I do say so myself. D.J?. granted us every bonus and accolade he could for that session on the Chronicle sheet.

Second day, I waited around for something, decided to opt out, then was dragged along to a live event called The Dungeon Master and since I had not yet done any RP that day, decided to sign up to play/perform.
This was a blast. Despite the fact some of our party members had not even hit puberty yet, they were enthusiastic and ready to solve every problem with whatever weapon they had at hand. I felt I presented a slightly better than mediocre display of my wit and wisdom as well as a one shot on the "boss" of the session. Apparently my snark, ability to combine rhymes for pun-tastic couplets, and willingness to contribute to the terrible pop-culture references and inside jokes made me the audience favorite for that session, gaining me free admission to their shows for their next season.

Day Three, I am on a mission to play another game with D.J?. as the DM if he runs one and I have also resolved to join the Pathfinder Society in full and roll up a character. I have done a bit of research and am learning about the world of Golarion so I begin trolling the corner/hole the society had been regulated to. I find D.J?. and he is sitting, eyes closed and chiming in to a game he seemed to be helping with. I tried to chat him up a bit and after hearing simply that he would be running other games, wandered off to begin rolling up a Pathfinder legit toon. I find some amiable gents who've been playing Society for some time, as well as H.Hazzard, and the BSing ensues while I choose what type of ridiculousness Golarion is about to defile its universe.
I opted to join in to a tier 1 game and so my reign of silly has begun. After gaining the approval of 1 and 2 1/2 ninja's (i would say only half approval from two of the three) oh, I'm sorry, "merchants," and noobing it up/messing with our cleric (who was being RPed excellently) I had completed my first real Society mission.
I tracked down D.J?. again, this time he was MUCH chipper (apparently a 6 hour nap has that effect) and agreed to let me jump into a game with a pregen he was running later that eve.
And so, at 8pm we assembled, H.Hazzad was running his crazy high AC warrior (33 AC before buffs), I snagged the Rogue from the core book as my other choice was the warrior, and we already had one. The gal RUNNING a few things at the con decided to jump in as our healer, the Cleric from the core as well. AND to round out our crew we had a fantastic battle-buff-bard/savage skald of serious Nordic flavor. APPARENTLY, this tier was 8-9, the "real" characters were level 8 and the cleric & I were level 7, so we we're technically UNDERpowered for the session. so, about 2/3rd through the first encounter we almost KILLED, like, dead dead, more than -10 plus -your con score, but thankfully, D.M?. re-did some math and realized he was using the higher level stats for the encounter so re-dialed the damage. We were then offered the opportunity to restart the session for a more appropriate adventure, but we opted to be badass, and managed to plow through and complete the task, we might have had SOME help from the DM, but even with some junk rolls and maybe some meta-gaming from the DM and the cleric, we had some great moments. Even so, I think we earned those points.

Game-con-on

This weekend M'Lady & I will be in SoCal attending Strategicon's Gateway gaming convention. She will be helping keep the con looking good with the D20 Girls and I will be riding along for shiggles.
Although I don't normally attend gaming cons I do hope to change that. I'm looking forward to trying some different systems. My coworker "RunningRyan" recommended I try Arkham Horror, as I've never actually played it and maybe even put my acting chops to good use in a LARP, as there seems to be a cool Eberron session set on the lightning rail and of course a steampunk game also.

To add some vaguely relevant personal insight to this post I might discuss the new Campaign that just started with Eric the Blave as DM.

As a flavor/powering component he has had us roll up lvl 1 NPC class characters, and then when we level we will take the first level of a core class. However, instead of having us play a short prologue like he has done once previously, we rolled straight into the first session of the game.

It has been interesting so far, I like the idea in general as a neat quirk but even up against po-dunk peasants it was a challenge.

I don't mind low powered survival scenarios and if I know that's the kind of game we're going into I know to enjoy it. However, I don't know why I never learn with this DM, I expected something more epic, initially.

So, the idea is that magic is returning to the world after thousands of years and our characters are inheritors of this concept (i.e. sorcerers are unheard of, there is no "live" pantheon, everyone worships the elements, but we are the rare few to bring about change in the world). Being that our group would be (after our first "real" level) fairly unique and definitely more powerful than the average citizen of the world I anticipated some fun derring-do our first session.

I was wrong, as I so often am in Eric's games. Brad_again(rejoining our group once more after a 3+ year hiatus) and I would joke about making a kill order list of every named NPC we met and general taking a KoS view of the world if anyone was a jerk or TOO helpful. The joking was about 60% joke and 40% serious as intelligent, articulate, polite and EVIL JERKS seem to infest The Blave's worlds.

Although, even with a mob of peasants vs 3 level 1 npc's I am learning the power of a reliable strength score as well as controller characters. Even as an expert, which gets no BAB, built to level into bard, I was able to make excellent use of trips and grapples.
As much as I want to gripe, perhaps I will have enough time to see how effective I can be "dual wielding" a quarterstaff with a -2/-4 attack. For some inexplicable reason I seem to be terribly adept when my characters have absolutely no business doing a certain thing, and then does them. (My full progression Wizard who had a Bastard Sword for looks and ended up one shoting a peasant and some utiugs on separate occasions.)

Fanime 2011

I'm at Fanime mouthafuggers!

Since our store wont have a booth at fanime this year I will be attending as per normal. We shall see whether or not I hijack a booth like I did last year for some impromptu nerdcoreness. Or if filled wiht enough bravado from friends I might just start busting rhymes at random.

I will also be guerrilla gaming all weekend. Some homeboys who wont break down and pay the cash to attend will try to sneak into the gaming hall for D&D OR we'll just procure some tables on the concourse and play to the sounds of Stage 0 shenanigans.

Also, check out the Twilight Knights Dojo where Master Ben Hsu will be laying down Martial Arts knowledge, and BONUS! My store is doing combo packs for training for that. Get em quick, we will probably sell out.

So keep an eye out for my vaguely famous headgear and say hi. See you web-space cowboys!

Going Home

Today h47's getting a little heavy, but coming straight out of almost an entire work week of Con, I think it a fitting musing.

I've watched Nerdcore Rising and a clip or two of the concert at PAX. I've been consuming everything Penny Arcade for the last 3 years (twitter, PATV) and I want to go "home" to PAX.
What is that? that sense of geek home, where all us geeks are accepted and valid as human beings?
Is that our issue? We have become so accustomed to being "other?" Is it so intrinsic to the nature of nerdery that we be pariahs?

I have been reduced to tears, literally, at least 3 times because of an awareness of that experience, that "home" feeling. Wil Wheaton mentions it, you can SEE Scott Kurtz live it on the latest episode of PATV, I definitely get that vibe from Front when I see him reference the PAX concerts.

It fascinates me.

My buddy Epyon Avenger has mentioned how at Fanime the convention center slowly evolves into a nerd molded shanty-town. Chairs get moved into circles, music jams start to occur and the "community" assembles and reconnects every year.

To be clear, I fully support this and think it is wonderful. The thing that stays with me is why?
I guess I feel the same way about it as I do about Nerdcore. It would be awesome if it became the norm and our world was full of fluffy killer bunnies and school girls. But then I don't think it would be the same. I would guess that an essential part of the experience is the fact that there is a common bond from the shared memory of our exclusion from "the normals." From that, these institutions become havens where we understand each other or at least tolerate and revel in our "off-ness."

Maybe that's it then. I think I knew it in my life meter, but it wasn't in my spell-book. In doing a little mental craft grinding I discovered something. And from this I hope I can foster that emotion in my own corner of cyberspace as well as at S.G.I.S.Con. As long as my readers understand what I just said, or at least get the gist of it, I think the nerd world will be just a little bit better and grow in scope. But not too much, for perhaps that etheral thing, that light, intangible concept might press L2 & R2 if we try to force it.

Thanks for listening inter-natives, see you at home.

L2 Con, Blizz!

(this post is brought to you by This Lovely Lady's opinion on what my next post should be. Biased? Do I care?)

"Gee h47, that's a lot of people milling about, where's that?"
THAT IS A LINE OF PAIN AND ANGUISH THAT COILS TO AND FRO LIKE A NEFARIOUS FIEND'S FECES ONLY TO END IN A FLURRY OF ACTIVITY AND AN EXCHANGE OF TOO LITTLE GOODS TO TOO MUCH MONEY!!

In a less irate tone, that was the line for the Blizzcon Store at the 08 Con. I don't know what the con was like at the first 2 Blizzcons or so, nor the latest blizzcon, but if 08 was ANY indication, Blizzard needs to seriously rework their con staff and allocation of resources.

Hint one, was when we had to partake of the ticket buying debacle. We had heard the year before that tickets sold out within days of going on sale. So, we were poised ("we" being myself and T1nk) with a couple days off and mouses on "buy" option. Then, the amazing happened, the site went down.These two images are the avatars of pain and suffering to Blizzard addicts everywhere and were stared at for nearly three days straight while Blizzards store servers went down from the ruthless pummeling it had taken from the droves of rabid fans.

This did not need to happen. The previous years traffic should have indicated that the interest was large enough to warrant a third party ticket seller or that servers needed to be fortified for the onslaught. These are things that are inferred or speculated upon through various circles I move in. No? Not enough of an authority?

Very well. Servers went down, QQ, people started buying out tickets left and right. Just like the year before and the year after, tickets sold out in less than triple digit hours, approximately 3 days. The reason the tickets sell out so quickly is the drastically limited space at Anaheim convention center to the massive volume of fans who are willing and have adequate funding to attend. One of my favorite phrases I heard at least twice at Blizzcon 08, paraphrased was "10 million people play WoW alone (at the time), not to mention the hardcore Diablo and Starcraft players. The convention center holds 9100. round up or down very graciously either way and that's still less than ONE PERCENT!"

Aright, maybe Blizzard has done this on purpose so that only the most dedicated and serious people will make it to Blizzcon and they prefer to keep it as intimate as possible with such a large fan base. Fine.

T1nk and I got to the con, waited a while after it opened in order to not need to stand in line to get badges and swag, then entered the con a few hours after it had started.
As soon as we walked in we saw the above mentioned line for the Blizzcon Store and T1nk decided to get in it just in case, because T1nk has a healthy concern for practical things like that. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the con, seeing the booths, watching events . . while T1nk stood in line. Then we explored more, stalked The Guild, and perused the itinerary for the next day.

Admittedly, the line died down considerably the next day, but I still stood in line for a good hour to make my shirt purchases and they did not sell out of anything that year. Line rush from day one uncalled for? Due to sellouts in previous year? I honestly don't know.

After less than 9 hours total at the con, we left EARLY to go to "The Magic Kingdom (don't actually click that link, just MOUSE over it. oooh, I know.)"
The next day, we hit Blizzcon 08 hard with a clear plan of what we wanted to do and see.
I played the Wrath of the Lich King preview (not yet released in beta at the time) as well as the Starcraft II preview, for my thoughts, see Hitler!

We tried to get seats as close as possible for the ending concert and Patton Oswalt, but succeeded in getting about 3 screens back, approximately 50 yards back from the stage.

All told, it took us less than 15 hours to see and do everything we wanted at Blizzcon 08, including line time, with one small exception, while I was standing in the store line, I believe the WoW Q&A panel started and I did not know until that moment I wanted to see it. So, Oh well.

All told, I gave Blizzcon 08 a solid "C" grade. From all the fail that we encountered and all the win to make up for it, the ultimate experience was totally whelming(yes, I used the correct word for my thought). Personally, I need a Con to be B grade in order to justify attending and was only slightly heartbroken to not attend Blizzcon 09. Only because I have gained a very rich experience of Blizz's products in the last year (finally beat the Starcraft campaigns and most of the way through Warcraft 3. I know, I know, blasphemer, I only ever played the LAN games with friends every day for a whole academic year in our Cisco Networking class. I finally bought the battlechests last year.) am I much more aware now of what Blizzard's products are and what to be interested in.

Gruh'nug, Who's favorite phrase is "build more TREES!" shares my feelings . .

Comic Con 09 Part 3rd (for real)

Consciousness came, it was not entirely welcome, but alas, there it was. Upon what was really the last day of our adventure.

I dropped the gals off at the Con and sought free parking, found some, approx 2 miles away (no joke, if it had been, the number would have been higher, I assure you.) and strolled over. Whilst I walked I encountered a young couple who inquired if I was attending AwesomeCon, which they explained was a free "Con" being held at the Hilton which was "Tim and Eric Awesome Show" themed. I was wary of them at this point, but they did not display any other signs of retardation so I continued on walking and conversing with them and parted ways about Hall H.

I then made my way into the depths of the dealer hall, the subterranean underbelly of ComicCon, to find my Fiance. Short phone tag later, I located her about 1/8 the way down from the Hall H side of the hall. I followed her for a few rows and finally inquired what her goal was, "to go from one end of the hall to the other!" Ah, so this was to be my punishment before tonight was it? So I reshouldered the backpack and two swag bags she had on her person and began to channel my inner mule, well, mule with a grin, didn't help me much around row 3000, or so, I don't remember. We grumped at each other for a few moments, I went and watched anime for a few minutes, than met T1nk again when she offered me Frank Beddor and bribes. I took them of course and we then headed for the panel situation.

We saw Scott Kurtz, Brad Guigar, Dave Kellet, and Kris Straub. They talked about what it was really like to exist as a webcomic and T1nk took copious notes. Correction, Kurts partook of some shenanigans, offered to suck someones dick, THEN spoke of the webcomic industry with the two to his closer left, while the gentleman at the far end seemed to be mute, I don't recall rightly. to be sure, ask someone else who was there. AH HA! Brad was the mute (t1nk and I just puzzled it out.) good times, back to the dealers hall, for pics, go HERE!!!1!LOL (I told you I would link her eventually, so there!)

Yeah, She takes more/better pics than I do, so see hers there. I hope that I will be able to supply as awesome pic quality (not content, this is me we're talking about) once I acquire a new mobile electronic device.

Told Front to break a leg that evening (which he did), donated to Ms. Bredeen's Alcoholic habits, and managed to stalk GeekGirlDiva successfully. For finding this rare spawn, we acquired +1 Rare Shirt ( A Chuck Buy More Supervisor Polo) I'm not a huge fan myself, but I know good swag when I see it. Many thanks to the Lady from EE. ( dont click that EE if you value your savings.) To GGD; may your l00tz be phat, ur dps high, and you're absolutely right, THIS is a diva, not . . this . .

After T1nk got her stalk on, we all met up for dinner. after food, we headed off to The Casbah For AfterCon09!!!

FRONT!! LARS!! YT!!! C&H!!! SMBC!!! AND ZEALOUS1!?!?!? SNAP!!! I just nerdgasmed all over myself. It was the shizznizle.

They attempted to start with SMBC, but due to technical difficulties . . . .

YTCracker Kicked it off, Lars jumped in on a couple songs with him.
YT was good. He was all set, and as he likes to tweet #dothedamthang , which he did. good times.

Tech Krew got their gear together and we watched some Cyanide & Happiness shorts, as well as the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal shorts.
Greatly amusing, nothing that made me pee my pants but definitely funny, and great filler between sets.

The Front brutalized the stage along side The Categorical Imperative(his drummer) and his trusty laptop. YT & Lars helped out when needed.
My first time seeing Frontalot Live, but from the other shows I've watched (all of the Nerdcore Rising special features as well as all his site's vids) and he busted it out and laid it down. There was point where he got a lil crazy with his moves, looked like he tweaked his back out, but one "Yellow Lazers" later and he was back to his spastic choreography.

Couple more shorts . . .

MC Lars and Co. hit the stage with a vengeance and threw down. He informed us Zealous1 was there, and proceeded to rock the Casbah. (oh yes, I went there) Front helped out with "O.G: Origional Gamer"which part of was composed by Jonathan Coulton (whole lotta geek musician up in these things). After pouring his energy into the audience Lars invited Zealous up on stage to rock a song, as well as two lesser known MC's who laid down some lyrics, kudos to Lars for lettin the little guy bust one out, and after it was obvious Lars was done, T1nk and I had to bounce.

We missed Doomtree, and maybe one day I will find them and listen to them, but that day has not yet come, and we we're tired, and I felt guilty bout dragging T1nk along, so I told her we could leave.


Next morning, we dropped PievuhG off to grab some last second swag, picked her back up, ate at a Denny's nearby ( I had been jonesen for Chicken Fried Steak and Biscuits and Gravy since Thur's night, I was disappointed) and made the trek back up . . I-5 *shudder* and made it home before 11 PM. GJ team, hi fives all around. Here's to a better one next time. *Holds up a bottle of B33r Bawls*

San Diego Comic Con 2009 Part 2

Next morning, got off to a late start. rolled down the hill, took a left at Albuquerque when we should have turned down at Timbucktoo. (If you dont know that joke, grow older by five years or more, watch some loony toons, or GTFO mah bliggity blawg!) but still rolled right into downtwon San Diago(yes, Anchorman jokes were in full swing from celeb tweets and beyond)

By this time T1nk was in full "im-late-and-i-will-kill-if-i'm-not-on-time" freak out mode, so I dropped Pievuhg and the better half at the first good looking stop, and moved my way up to $15 parking lot that was a good mile away. hopped a bicycle taxi, tipped the poor guy with a roll of quarters (do not underestimate my brokeness) and schlepped up to get mah badge.

As I was herded like an animal of the field among a multitude of other geeks attempting to get into the convention center, I began to feel that familiar sensation of elation. These were my people, and I immediately began to judge them. But elitism aside, I never feel more at ease than at a con. this is where my kind, the geek, the nerd, the outcast, the goth, the Trekkie(wow, spellchecker corrected that for me, yikes), the weird guy, the gamer, the hacker, the candlestick maker, this is where we congregate and only our own judge us, not the entire locale. And if they're our own judging us, we at least feel the comfort that, they have an understanding, and don't come of their opinion blindly but from a mutual understanding that most of us know, we're still not considered "normal." And I don't know if I'm getting soft or just have gained more wisdom, but now I often think before I pass judgment, assessing the previous thought as well as playing devils advocate for a second. A good example of this is actually from a panel I missed entirely.
(for the extended version seek out Kevin Smith Q&A from Hall H Comic Con 09, there should be a link here somewhere . . . there's a good one, for shorter, try this, But I suggest starting at the top and writing off your next 2 hours.)
Kevin Smith effectively said GTF-OFF Twihards, they are the geeks of the future, they are girls w/Vamp hard on's, WTF is wrong with you dude?"

Oh look, a tangent, never had one of those, or sarcasm for that matter *false belly chuckle* Oh ho ho ho . . moving on . . . .

Grabbed my badge for Fri, was told I could grab my badge for sat after 4 pm, was tossed a swag bag (very literature heavy, less on the swag) and really started taking in the sights (see pic, the 2 Astromech droids in the general Lobby. Fear the SW fans!) , the sounds (general cacophony with strange snippets, and of course, the smells [if you are, know, or have interacted with any sort of social deviate for longer than two days, we don't smell the prettiest, no, not even some of the girls. It's unfortunate, but we are making strides towards change[its here that I wanted to link to a flyer/handout/thing by Something Positive about using a shower at conventions specifically targeted at geeks. i.e. undress, we know it's embarrassing, get under the water, we know, its cold, turn it towards hot. use the soap, no those aren't demon creatures eating your flesh, they are bubbles, and normal, then rinse, dry, and dress again.] Unfortunately I cant find said pamphlet, if anyone else can, please notify me). I then hustled to get to some hall where T1nk was already in line even though the panel was about to get out in less than 10 minutes. To be fair, it was a Coraline panel with Niel Gaiman. while waiting for Pievuhg to recover me, (I was a bit lost, but she had explored the con the day before) I am very confident, I saw Stan Lee. I heard the voice, looked back, there was a white suit upon an older gentleman wearing glasses, all attached to a mustache, and surrounded by an entourage. Liz found me, and took me to T1nk. ( ComicCon Nazi's/Elite's are, well, doing there jobs, to them; "please stop being dicks," if you encounter one; "they are doing their job's, don't bug them more than twice, don't be dicks to them, they're trying to keep the Con form being lame. If you have a problem, join staff and fix it." gee? sounds like cops.)

T1nk was still in line and concerned we wouldn't make it into the "9" panel at hall H because, well, it's Hall H. So, I told her, as her Man-Pack for the weekend I was gonna head over there and get in line. ( I had attempted to establish a couple times, that since I would be attending Aftercon, and dragging her along, AND since she paid for my tickets for ComicCon, I was there at her whim to carry swag [ill-gotten or otherwise], supplies, and hold spots in lines)
Pievuhg led me down to the bottom level and we popped into the dealer hall. What a ridiculousness. To say this hall is large, crowded, or noisy, is to call an ocean wet. Picture a pulga(that's flea market for you non-ethnic's) and put it under a large concrete ceiling and sink it about 5 feet under street level, and you've got an idea of how this place looked.
Pievuhg stopped at the ComicCon booth (not as awesome or impressive as you might think, very simple, one booth) to buy a sexy ComicCon shirt. I took the opportunity to find, as Scott Kurtz put it, The "Penny Arcade Elbow" which he was in, and it seemed, so was most of the rest of the WebComic Industry. MC Frontalot was holdin down a Corner of the PA booth as their official . . um, something fancy sounding, as Tycho likes to do, that effectively means Front is their official Rapper. I stopped, saw MC Frontalot in the flesh. Got my copy of Nerdcore Rising signed, Front regaled me with the fact that my copy was early run copy and superior to the merchandise in front of him. I was pleased. I then rolled around to the other side of the booth and had Gabe of Tycho and Gabe sign my "I roll twenty's" Shirt with the phrase "I thought you were supposed to get better at this" If I could get Wil Wheaton to sign that same shirt, I may end my life as a geek in peace.With geek/fanboy Nirvana almost attained I unerringly head to find THE LINE TO H! Found it, stood in it, T1nk showed up, stood in it. Met two groups of people, one groovy, one annoying, none worth more note than that.

Then, finally made it into the SUB-FUCKING-LINES INSIDE HALL H!!! which are there to further torment those who have endured the outside for 3+ hours. Apparently other situations have been explored and I pray and keep myself ignorant of the truth in the hopes that Comic Con higher ups have assessed other options and find that this is the most effective.

Once inside Hall H we find that the end of the Disney Panel is underway and find seats.
Disney panel: Tons of Fun. Beauty and the Beast in 3D this coming Valentines day ( I know what T1nk and I are going too).
But the one I am really excited for is The Princess and the Frog. Oh yeah, all hand drawn, full blown musical numbers performed by the characters. Good jokes, a nod to more mature audiences than just kiddy fare, a gator named Louis who solves problems with sharp sticks and plays jazz trumpet(after my own heart, I assure you) and a Cajun firefly named Ray who thinks as disjointed and quickly as he talks. I laughed my ass off at the 3 min clip they showed. I'm seein that one. Only down sides I can think of, the first black Disney princess isn't actually a real princess from the start, and as if New Orleans square in Disneyland wasn't crowded enough already, with Fantasmic, Haunted Mansion, three or so restaurants, one of the easiest to find bathrooms, the train station, and of course The Cpt. Jack sparrow ride, sorry, Pirates.
Also, Miyazaki, or, J-colonel Sanders, was there to promote Ponyo's release in the U.S with full Dub, and was awarded the g">Comic Con Inkpot award, those things are metal, I want one. Paton Oswald came out, made the Disney panel a little PG13 with the Q&A, awkward geeks were awkward cause it was friggin Miyazaki-san, and the panel ended.

There was than a lull in between panels and t1nk and I moved up for a better seat and settled in for an awesome panel. Some dude I didn't recognized was moderating but introduced the director, Shane Acker, as well as Acker's two "mentors" on the project, Tim Burton, and Timur Bekmambetov (the director from Wanted). Hrmm . . Tim Squared helped shane, lol. And two huge names working on the movie, Elijah Wood, and Jennifer Connelly. In Short, "9" looks awesome, and even if it's not the deepest movie, it will have a crazy nifty hook and be very pretty to watch. After this panel, T1nk and I left to locate Pievuhg and wander the Con Some more.

We wandered the dealer room, apparently Amanda Palmer(lead singer of Dresden Dolls) was doing a book signing that afternoon/evening and T1nk had to stalk her, we ate Con food, and were charged too much for it.

Around 5 PM was a lil in booth concert by MC Frontalot and the Categorical Imperative (his drummer) at the PA Elbow! (see Pic above, I know, its a shitty pic from my cell phone. I will get a better phone and try to take better pictures, never guarantees.)

Finally, due to the fact my parking pass was only good till 8:30 pm, we all decided to call it a day and headed back up the hill.

San Diego Comic Con 2009 part 1

(There is a room above the fire station on Main Street Disneyland which Walt Disney would stay in all the time. He would keep a light on to let the people in the park know he was there and after his passing they keep the light on all the time now. Thats right)

TEN FUCKING HOURS!!!Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself by about six hours. So, for the fun adventures of how we finally decided to go to SDCC see Theatreg33k . . damn. one of these days I will link the shit outta these posts.

SO! Pievuhg had a weekend pass (she's sleeping with the owner of a local comic shop, regardless of the fact that the owner is currently carrying her husbands child SHUSH!) but T1nk(theatreg33k, yes i know, "holy shit h47!? nicknames for your nicknames?!" shuddup, T1nk is shorter and its another of her personas, AND it's my blog, keep up!) and I only had passes for Fri & Sat, we were gonna drive down Wednesday, and while pievuhg was at the con thurs, T1nk & I would hit the magic kingdom (yes, we're Disney whores and have no shame about it. yes, i know they're an evil ubercorp, but I'll be damned if its not one of the most fun places in the world, get a childhood) *looks around* crap, got ahead of myself again.

Tuesday night (after D&D) I discovered my H47b0x(my computer) decided I could log in but would then log me back out of windows, so, had to get Epyon_Avenger on the case, my digital savior. I packed up for the weekend and attempted to sleep from 1 Am to 5 Am so we could leave at 6 Am. great plan, meanwhile, T1nk stayed up all night packing and such, just gonna sleep the whole way down, which she did. Left bright and early at about 7 am (of course), watched the sun come up as we drove down I-5, the varicose vein of the crack that is the central valley of California. Constantly paranoid and fighting my fatigue-to-hunger-to-"whatwasthatnoise?!wasitthecar?!" syndrome we made a few stops along the way. tried to talk pievuhg into letting us try and sneak her into the MouseLand around Anaheim, but she wouldn't have it. At that point I thought, "oh good, almost there, not much farther" my spacial recollection of the location of Anaheim to San Diego is still skewed. the last 2-3 hours of the drive were painful for me, I had no idea where i was going again, and of course, instead of -continue on I-5, then left on suchandsuch lane- it was, okay merge onto this highway, now this highway, now left, right, right, up, down, select, start, WTF!? apparently our sweet hookup to stay over is atop the only mountain in the basin (t1nk is NOT cool with windy roads, especially if they're atop a fucking cliff) and so TEN FUCKING HOURS after leaving, we had arrived. Got lost shortly thereafter attempting to locate civilization at the bottom of the hill, had chipotle (so fuckin tasty) and found THE EASY WAY back up the hill to our HQ for the weekend. slept like the dead.

T1nk and I woke up at . . . ? 7:30 am? 8? because we were gonna drop Pievuhg off at the con and head north back to Anaheim. Apparently Pievuhg was welcomed with booze the night before and was nursing a hangover and finally at about 9am T1nk and I realized she wasn't leaving with us. BAM, off to Walt's World. Rode rides and all that, forgot my lanyard (yes, t1nk got me hooked on pin trading the trip I proposed to her [blog about that later, I'm sure] but its actually very fun and I have a sixth sense for hidden mickey's, I'm like a boar to truffles. I just think a pin is cool, but when we look closer, there's ears. anyway) but still snagged a slick lanyard weight, AND, we caught the Electrical Parade. that shit was awesome, the intro music is really the best part. It broke down, sat there for 3 mins, and a deisel pull cart rolled up and pulled it along. it was awesome. I want to be an electrical bug, that looks like so much fun.
made it back to HQ without incident, ready to attack Comic Con '09 fast and hard, just like me, OH!

Anime Amusement

(An expansion of a 10 second review I gave at my last job to some costumers who are now good acquaintances. You know who you are, "sport/sparky" )

Lately I have been attempting to boost my anime intake. The current surge started earlier this year in hopes and an attempt to be a little more well versed by the time Fanime '09 hit. So, I started with an anime house I know and love, Gainax . So, I went through the catalog in the Wikki ( I know, I know, wikki is like that guy you hang out with who's always right and knows everything, and is usually basing what he knows on truth but the fucker hasn't even graduated college yet, gee, sounds a lot like me. Maybe that's why I like it. But anyway, its a good enough start for me.)

I have ingested Neon Genesis: Evangelion (good luck with just that link, if you don't know already, you might want to take a few days to fully explore it.) previously, as my first full anime, and I loved it. More on that later, as well as FLCL, um . . . same as I said with EVA, and so my choice was colored.

More recently I lovingly consumed Otaku no Video which continues to be a staple of the Otaku condition in my eyes. Then Ebichu which is ridiculous awesome, but try and find translations w/explanations cause there's a lot of cultural/wordplay goin on in that shit.

And then, ah yes, Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan .

(near exact quote from conversation)
"You remember how Eva was like, rape your brain and leave you broken in an alley and never calls you back? well Gurren, Gainax's only Mecha since then, it takes you out for a lovely dinner, takes you back to it's place, then fucks you in your ear hole, but at least uses lube and says it will call if you want it to. And you do, oh do you!"

I was at both Gurren events at Fanime, and they were awesome. There are better documented occurrences of them than I could post, but I don't know where they are, maybe I will post them later, but, I will say this.

(Tweet)
h47 Asking the panelists questions in rapid fire japanese is CHEATING!

I have since moved on to milking the series Melody of OBlivion . Its not as awesome as Gurren or Eva, yet, but its very old school, combines several elements that don't make sense together. I dig the music, the art style, makes me feel nostalgic when I watch it, like I'm 16 again watching eva in VHS all alone. odd.

Yeah, I think it was Mjerk who told me this, but I use it still to this day. The recipe for any good anime is at least 3 things that don't go together. Eva? Kids, mechs, theology. (yes theres many more) Cowboy BeBop? Kids, space ships, Yakuza. The list just goes on.

Aright, im bloggered out. More later.

AFTERCON 09!

AFTERCON 09: MC LARS, Cyanide & Happiness,SMBC,Doomtree,MC Frontalot, ytcracker

AFTERCON 09':MC LARS, new animated shorts by Cyanide and Happiness, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Theater, Doomtree, MC Frontalot, ytcracker.
PERFORMANCE INFO
Sat, Jul 25
Doors at 7:30PM Casbah San Diego, CA Ages 21+ Only $18.00 - $20.00 Onsale Jun 27

happening Comic Con weekend, less than 10 mins from the con. best beleive i will be there.

Represent The Nerdlife, forthright!

S.G.I.S.Con 4 Spoiler

A friendly reminder to those in the know. SAME BAD PLACE SAME BAD TIME!

I anticipate both trilogies being played the entire weekend, with special screenings of SW-centric movies. I'm hoping for FANBOYS , SPACEBALLS , and maybe even the terrible X-MAS SPECIAL !!!!

I also really want to do a Lightsabre building workshop, and I'm sure we can dig out numerous SW-themed games to play.

More itinerary as we get closer to the event.

S.G.I.S.Con: The Tale

" WTF is S.G.I.S.Con?!"
Sad Geek In Snow Convention. A "con" held every year in honor of my birthday at a family cabin. I invite every geek I am buddies with and we assemble in a beautiful section of the wilderness, and stay inside for the entire weekend. well, I do, usually the guests venture farther up the road to some snow and get all cold and wet then come back. good times.
I know, "wow, how pretentious, a 'Con' just for your birthday?" but, if you've ever met me, you know I have great plans, just like anyone else, big dreams. One day I hope for it to actually be a full blown Convention, dedicated to all things geeky! Well, most things. I have often complained how Convention season is in the summer, so I would prefer a winter con, especially if I am the figure head and its soul, its true con type, would be flavored by me and my friends interests.
So, a weekend long get together, by invite only, we have begun doing themes, and vague itineraries, as well as, registration fees (so we can afford food) for room and board.
Of course, being the elitist jerk I am, I wont publicly advertise this Con, but I do extend invitations to friends of friends in the hopes that it continues to be a VERY harmonious event with like minded, yet unique individuals.
So far we have had as many as 25 geeks assembled for the festivities, and I will post synopsis of past S.G.I.S.Cons. Also watch Theatreg33k who posts day by day journals of most of our trips.