Voices

The weekend (plus a few days before and after) was awesome. It included Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz on the big screen at Central Cinema, an awesome wedding at the Woodland Park Zoo, and amazing house show with 11 bands and tons of friends, and the annual "best 4th of July party ever (until the next one)" at the house of random_girl and grandmoffdavid.

I've been playing bass again. Three friends and I decided to put together a band and mess around and see what comes of it. We've had three practices in three weeks so far, and while we're still not good, we're definitely better than when we started. It's a very cool, low-pressure situation since we're all either (a) brand new to playing our instruments (which includes vocals) or (b) haven't played them in 7+ years. So we're just figuring things out together as we go.

( On a less postivie note: )

Happy birthday to lesleymac, because she rocks.

Note: Posted via email.

Long, tiring weekend. Awesome, but tiring. Jeff Bowman is now married. The Exalted game was very well received. Dallas is still scary. Many old friends and acquaintences were greeted, hugged, and conversed with (Jeff, Andy, Jenn, Heather, Josh, Bocks, Pat), and several new friends were made. Sleep was a precious and rare commodity. Tired. But good.

Yesterday I turned 26.

The first thing I did after waking was immediately open the box my parents sent to me, which had been taunting me from its perch on top of my sumo for the past five days. From them I received the second season of Veronica Mars (to replace my ill-gotten divx copies) and the soundtrack to Haibane Renmei.

Between Greece and PAX, I didn't have enough vacation time to actually take the day off from work, but my manager was nice enough to let me leave a couple of hours early. We're also going out to lunch tomorrow with the rest of the reporting department (all five of us) for celebratory something-or-other. I'm supposed to pick the restaurant, but I have no idea where we'll be going. But back to yesterday...

I had lunch with yurodivuie, Lesley, and Daniel at a Thai place down the street from work that I'd never eaten at before. It was good, though they were out of tofu for some bizarre reason, which cut their normally massive vegetarian menu down to about four items.

After work it was mostly Disgaea 2 and pizza and tv (new episodes of Bones, which I like despite myself, and Mythbusters) with bookishelaine. So, nothing too fancy, but I'm thinking of planning a dinner outing to invite people to, possibly next Saturday. Though if that's going to happen, I should really get on the ball...

Today was when I decided to get some birthday gifts for myself, which consisted of the new dvd releases of the original versions of Star Wars episodes IV, V, and VI. I also drove out to visit gaaneden to pick up the print copy of Qin: The Warring States that she so kindly picked up for me at GenCon. We also had a fun conversation about her current projects, rpgs, and writing, and I actually didn't even mind the drive to and from the East side, because I was listening to The Restoration of Chaos and Order, which is still, after more than a dozen listenings, really fabulous.

So, yeah, that's my boring birthday story. Cheers.

Some of you know Jesse Cox, and a few of you also know his wife Elaine. I talked with them yesterday and was informed that Elaine is pregnant. Congratulations to them! (And, yes, I do have permission to tell people).

I'm tired today, but for good reasons. We ended the B13 game early last night but actually stayed at the house late having a great conversation. I say conversation, but it was mostly just me listening until preciousjade looked over at me and said, "You're not saying anything. Start talking!" Good times.

I've decided to get an early start on my best-of-the-year lists, just because I've been thinking about it for some reason the last couple of days.

( 6 Best Albums I Heard for the First Time in 2005 )

So, PAX was a rousing success for the second year in a row. I survived on three hours of sleep a night and copious amounts of Bawls, Bawls mints, and the occasional cup of coffee. A big part of any Penny Arcade event is always seeing all the cool people you've gotten to know at previous PA events, and this year certainly held that up. There was lots of hanging out with Jacob, Mike F., Robert, Mike O., Richard, Kristen, Bill, and (of course) Mike & Jerry themselves, plus lots of new people, like David and the awesome jedifreeman, who was nice enough to let me sleep on his floor in Redmond so that I didn't have to try to bus back and forth from Seattle every day.

Thursday I spent most of the morning setting up console space in the freeplay area and the tournament area, much like I did last year. Just so you know, if you ever need tvs unpacked and 3 consoles hooked up to them and secured from theft, I'm your man. There was also some general lugging about of various crates and boxes in the exhibition hall. During the three days of the con itself, I never got above the 2nd floor, as I was constantly working in either the Exhibition hall (Bobby D. at the AA booth, you're awesome!) or as security in the theater. Friday night I was one of four enforcers who worked the Turbine party in a bar at the Doubletree. Turbine is a game company that (from what I hear) used to be a division of Microsoft in some way, but is now its own entity. They're best known for Asheron's Call 1 & 2, but they are also the current developers for two upcoming MMORPGs -- Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. The party was to showcase DDO and included free alcohol for attendees over the age of 21. The Turbine people are really cool, and they all seem to be really in this business for the love of games, which is always gratifying to see in a developer. Plus, I got free t-shirts and dice from them.

I got to see preciousjade and grandmoffdavid while I was there. I'm afraid I wasn't too entertaining for them, as they arrived during one my lulls, where I was exhaustedly sitting in a chair guarding two doors from unauthorized entry. I think I may have seen covenantscave from across the room in the exhibition hall, but at the time I was unable to leave what I was doing, and by the time I got to where I thought I had seen him, he was no longer anywhere to be found.

Strike on Sunday night and Monday, and it was pretty low-key, as everyone was already completely exhausted. Tearing things apart after the con is always a little sad, but it's also a great deal easier than setting them up. You also get to see who the really hardcore people are, who will continue to desert work and push their bodies past the breaking point in order to finish things up. There was a great after-party at Mike F.'s apartment building Monday night, which included beer, pizza, a lot of Mario Kart Double Dash, and general fun and hijinks with a great crew of people.

I will definitely be putting in a 3rd appearance next year if at all possible. Much love to my Dark Lord Felauher, my wingman Richard, PRD, the whole PA Inc. crew, and all the Enforcers who made this such a great event. I'll see you all at Child's Play.

I picked up Nathan (kuaizi) and Elizabeth Stilwell at the airport last night. They're bumming around my house right now while I'm at work. So, if anyone in the Seattle area wants to stop by and say hi tonight, I give my permission, though you might want to call ahead to make sure we're there. They'll be going with Jason and me to see Hitchhikers Guide tomorrow night, and they'll be at the film night on Saturday as well.