Geek boy fun!
So my friend called and we worked everything out.The Adam's Mark hotel had it's typical list of issues plus some interesting ones. The event had it's share of interesting things too. Apparently this was the Year of the Vendor Bend Over. Overall I had a blast, but I was so wasted from the event and the "drama" that I skipped work on Monday.
Here's an unorganized mostly chonological list:
- I showed up at my friends place and waited about 4 hours for My Friend, her BF, and her roomate (a girl who was working the con) to finish packing. I played WOW with my the BF. It was a pretty cool game. Then we stopped by my place so I could pick up things I forgot! (typical geeks huh?) The car was filled to the brim with folks and gear, but it wasn't too bad becuase the roomates music mix and the company were good.
- Friday the folks in dealers room had an hour of set up (they normally get like 4 or something) before security kicked them out. They were allowed back in later for another set period of time that was still not enough.
- The dealer that one of our group was working for was also stiffed a table. So he had to set up in a compressed time for a compressed layout. Not good way to make a vendor happy. Also a good way to increase the "drama" for the weekend.
- When we arrived at 11:30 PM Friday the hotel was a war zone. Geeky anime kids sprawled all over the place. It rawked!
- The first room we got was the correct size and had the queen sized hide-a-bed, but was being renovated. I mean I thought there was problem when the light swtich had no cover, but when the lights went on and we saw a plaster covered floor and things missing from the bathroom, I knew we were in for a fun evening.
- The replacement room was too small, espeically after the double-and-not-queen-sized roll away bed was crammed in. We NEVER did get our extra blankets and pillows, in spite of 4 calls over 2 hours. I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag. My back is thanking me for it today.
- The AC woudln't go below 70. Yay.
- I discovered I was in a room with 4 girls (3 taken and 1 underage... bummer) and was a bit concerned about bathroom time... especially when...
- The water in the South Tower was shut off for about 4 hours Saturday morning. This apparently increased the funk factor for the remainder of the con. We had to snag a room in the North Tower, walk over in our PJ's, and mess up it's shower. Luckily it was con and not a big deal. Too bad it was a single queen size bed or we would have just switched out. The rumor is that there was an electical socket spitting out water. Yay!
- Luckily everyone took it "in stride". It was fun to watch the roomate lay the smack down on the hotel staff.
- Saturday the dealers room had more morning opening issues.... and ....
- Was closed for about 4 hours because of fire code violations. The Akon folks were nice enough to reduce the price of tables for next year by $50. Um.. Yay... So our dealer friend saves $150.... next year. I was playing an RPG at the time in the main room so I just had fun oggling the folks in line and then getting back to being a Space Marine type character.
- The RPG was really cool and the GM was GREAT! I haven't had that much fun with an RPG in years. He made paying $30 for the book easy! I had the author of the book, Cheshire, give his John Hancock...or um... Cheshire. *shrugs*
- To make up for the closure they extended the Saturday dealer room time by 2 hours and startded Sunday an hour early. Which meant that the dealers had about 10 hours in between to restock, sleep, play, or just recover from the day.
Sautday night I watched a bit of the Cos play show. I watched from the late-teen entries to the early 30's. A lot of "A for efforts", but there was defintly a need for rehersal. :P
- I went to The Mistifts something something comedy show which had the the author of the RPG as a cast member. Made quick "getting through the line" small talk with the guy who was the GM. He was checking id's for 18+. They did the Who's Line thing with about 8 memebers. Funny funy stuff.
- After the show I peaked into the dance to see of there was enough bodies to hide my WMD... there wasn't so I went to bed this was about 2 AM.
- Was awaked Sunday around 8 AM by my friend, pre-packing and starting her 3 hour routine to get into the days outfit. By the way she wore it for 4 hours.
- When we chekced out hotel comped a day and night and saved about $150. The rooomate was instrumental in this. I bow to her leet smack down skills.
- They were nice enough to let us get the car out of vallet a few times Sunday so we could load up, let the girls cycle through outfits, get an inhaler, and then leave.
- The BF twisted my arm (I think he would have done it literally if I had resited more) into playing the game where you stand inside 3 towers and wack these panels that give light and sound. It was fun, but I was so hungry and...
- I had volenteered to help with the load out thinking it'd be an easy gig. No. The dealer room closed at 5 straglers left at 5:30. We then got to help/watch Vendor guy tear down. Some jerk left his truck in one of the 2 bays. This left everyone to fight for the other spot, luckily our venfor guy was um... persuasive. Please read this as short fused and wild eyed when pissed and then recall the previous vendor BS.
- The con roadies were supposed to leave at 8, we finished loading our booth just after 8, and there was at least 20 vendors behind us. The roadies kept offering help, and kept getting "the look" and told to bugger off. I think out vendor friend wanted them to feel the vendors pain.
- I said howdy to the GM... who was apparetly ALSO a roadie! :P
- Then we had to order the car, wait for the car, get into the car (hard after the tear down and load out), and find the post-con sushi place. We wanted Mr Sushi, but end up at Deep Sushi becuase that's where the hotel folks said to go. It was pricey as hell, but good. Not quite Kubo's and certainly not the place on Westhiemer that I can't recall, but good.
- The post-con sushi trip was covered by our vendor friend. Once he was away and done he was actualy a pretty cool guy. I learned he used to be in construction and was then enlightened as to why everything had to be "just so".
- We got out of Dallas shortly after 11 with a sushi high and slightly deranged from lack of sleep. We got back to the house and I called work around 3:30 AM. I was out cold by 3:45.
- I walked a lot. It was like the 8-mile hike I had last week, but with pockets of AC and thousands of things to oggle/window shop for.
- Overall I had only one thing really bug me... I couldn't be sure who to flirt with. When everyone is done up, you fear macking on the 14 year old. It kind of blew, but I had fun being a good geek boy.
Right off to bed. To my nice sweet bed...with the AC....
Here's an unorganized mostly chonological list:
- I showed up at my friends place and waited about 4 hours for My Friend, her BF, and her roomate (a girl who was working the con) to finish packing. I played WOW with my the BF. It was a pretty cool game. Then we stopped by my place so I could pick up things I forgot! (typical geeks huh?) The car was filled to the brim with folks and gear, but it wasn't too bad becuase the roomates music mix and the company were good.
- Friday the folks in dealers room had an hour of set up (they normally get like 4 or something) before security kicked them out. They were allowed back in later for another set period of time that was still not enough.
- The dealer that one of our group was working for was also stiffed a table. So he had to set up in a compressed time for a compressed layout. Not good way to make a vendor happy. Also a good way to increase the "drama" for the weekend.
- When we arrived at 11:30 PM Friday the hotel was a war zone. Geeky anime kids sprawled all over the place. It rawked!
- The first room we got was the correct size and had the queen sized hide-a-bed, but was being renovated. I mean I thought there was problem when the light swtich had no cover, but when the lights went on and we saw a plaster covered floor and things missing from the bathroom, I knew we were in for a fun evening.
- The replacement room was too small, espeically after the double-and-not-queen-sized roll away bed was crammed in. We NEVER did get our extra blankets and pillows, in spite of 4 calls over 2 hours. I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag. My back is thanking me for it today.
- The AC woudln't go below 70. Yay.
- I discovered I was in a room with 4 girls (3 taken and 1 underage... bummer) and was a bit concerned about bathroom time... especially when...
- The water in the South Tower was shut off for about 4 hours Saturday morning. This apparently increased the funk factor for the remainder of the con. We had to snag a room in the North Tower, walk over in our PJ's, and mess up it's shower. Luckily it was con and not a big deal. Too bad it was a single queen size bed or we would have just switched out. The rumor is that there was an electical socket spitting out water. Yay!
- Luckily everyone took it "in stride". It was fun to watch the roomate lay the smack down on the hotel staff.
- Saturday the dealers room had more morning opening issues.... and ....
- Was closed for about 4 hours because of fire code violations. The Akon folks were nice enough to reduce the price of tables for next year by $50. Um.. Yay... So our dealer friend saves $150.... next year. I was playing an RPG at the time in the main room so I just had fun oggling the folks in line and then getting back to being a Space Marine type character.
- The RPG was really cool and the GM was GREAT! I haven't had that much fun with an RPG in years. He made paying $30 for the book easy! I had the author of the book, Cheshire, give his John Hancock...or um... Cheshire. *shrugs*
- To make up for the closure they extended the Saturday dealer room time by 2 hours and startded Sunday an hour early. Which meant that the dealers had about 10 hours in between to restock, sleep, play, or just recover from the day.
Sautday night I watched a bit of the Cos play show. I watched from the late-teen entries to the early 30's. A lot of "A for efforts", but there was defintly a need for rehersal. :P
- I went to The Mistifts something something comedy show which had the the author of the RPG as a cast member. Made quick "getting through the line" small talk with the guy who was the GM. He was checking id's for 18+. They did the Who's Line thing with about 8 memebers. Funny funy stuff.
- After the show I peaked into the dance to see of there was enough bodies to hide my WMD... there wasn't so I went to bed this was about 2 AM.
- Was awaked Sunday around 8 AM by my friend, pre-packing and starting her 3 hour routine to get into the days outfit. By the way she wore it for 4 hours.
- When we chekced out hotel comped a day and night and saved about $150. The rooomate was instrumental in this. I bow to her leet smack down skills.
- They were nice enough to let us get the car out of vallet a few times Sunday so we could load up, let the girls cycle through outfits, get an inhaler, and then leave.
- The BF twisted my arm (I think he would have done it literally if I had resited more) into playing the game where you stand inside 3 towers and wack these panels that give light and sound. It was fun, but I was so hungry and...
- I had volenteered to help with the load out thinking it'd be an easy gig. No. The dealer room closed at 5 straglers left at 5:30. We then got to help/watch Vendor guy tear down. Some jerk left his truck in one of the 2 bays. This left everyone to fight for the other spot, luckily our venfor guy was um... persuasive. Please read this as short fused and wild eyed when pissed and then recall the previous vendor BS.
- The con roadies were supposed to leave at 8, we finished loading our booth just after 8, and there was at least 20 vendors behind us. The roadies kept offering help, and kept getting "the look" and told to bugger off. I think out vendor friend wanted them to feel the vendors pain.
- I said howdy to the GM... who was apparetly ALSO a roadie! :P
- Then we had to order the car, wait for the car, get into the car (hard after the tear down and load out), and find the post-con sushi place. We wanted Mr Sushi, but end up at Deep Sushi becuase that's where the hotel folks said to go. It was pricey as hell, but good. Not quite Kubo's and certainly not the place on Westhiemer that I can't recall, but good.
- The post-con sushi trip was covered by our vendor friend. Once he was away and done he was actualy a pretty cool guy. I learned he used to be in construction and was then enlightened as to why everything had to be "just so".
- We got out of Dallas shortly after 11 with a sushi high and slightly deranged from lack of sleep. We got back to the house and I called work around 3:30 AM. I was out cold by 3:45.
- I walked a lot. It was like the 8-mile hike I had last week, but with pockets of AC and thousands of things to oggle/window shop for.
- Overall I had only one thing really bug me... I couldn't be sure who to flirt with. When everyone is done up, you fear macking on the 14 year old. It kind of blew, but I had fun being a good geek boy.
Right off to bed. To my nice sweet bed...with the AC....